


Outside

by CreativeSkull



Category: Hello Puppets
Genre: Body Horror, Childhood Trauma, Friendship, Gen, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 43,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22888690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreativeSkull/pseuds/CreativeSkull
Summary: Stacy and Scout manage to find a different way out of Handeemen HQ. Now, free from the horror show they must learn how to live with their new normal as Stacy shows Scout what the world Outside is really like.Unfortunately for them, it won't be all sunshine and rainbows...Tags will be added as the fic updates.Rating and Warnings may change as the fic updates.
Comments: 151
Kudos: 165





	1. Freedom at Last

**Author's Note:**

> Behold! The first Hello Puppets fanfic ever posted! As far as I know anyways.
> 
> Please enjoy this happier ending(and beginning) for Scout and the player, now named Stacy Stein.

In spite of what Scout had said about the only way out being beyond the Sound Stage, Stacy managed to spot a window that was propped open. It was high up, too high for any of the Puppets whether they had Hosts or not. But, after observing it for a while, Stacy was sure she could manage it, even without the use of one hand

"Hey! Where are you going? The exit's that way. " Unfortunately, she couldn't tell Scout about her amazing plan. So she ignored the Puppet and climbed up on a couple of... crates? stacked underneath it. 

"You're going to get us killed. Or caught." Scout told her. "Woah, wait. Are going for the window?! Are you fucking insane, Host! We can't reach that!" Stacy made it to the top of the stack, finding she was maybe two inches too short to reach the window without jumping. But if she jumped, the stack would fall over, so she'd have to make it in one, and with only one hand.

Unless...

"There you see? I told you we couldn't reach it. So let's climb back down and woahwoahWOAHWAIT! FUCK!"

Stacy had jumped, and managed to grab onto the sill with her right hand. Her left, the one with Scout attached, had gone through the open window and slammed against the wall outside. Hoping she hadn't just seriously hurt the Puppet, she quickly climbed through the window. A couple feet below was a dumpster, that she unfortunately landed headfirst on top of. It made a bang that echoed around the abandoned parking lot, and Stacy knew it would have alerted the others.

So with a muffled groan she pushed herself off the dumpster. Somehow, she managed to land on her feet and made a desperate sprint for where she'd parked her truck. She didn't feel safe until she'd locked herself and Scout inside. She fumbled the key out of her bag sitting in the passenger seat, slamming it in the ignition and gunning it. Gripping the steering wheel with one hand she sped out of the lot at top speed, leaving skid marks behind as they fled.

Five minutes down the road she pulled over to the side, breathing heavily through the mask? bag? on her head. She let it fall against the wheel, and gave herself a minute to just sit and think.

"Hey." She winced slightly as Scout poked at her cheek. "Hey, are you dead?" A pause, followed by a couple of grunts. "Move your arm. Drive the car. Do something. Ugh, nope. Still can't do it."

Stacy turned her head just enough to give the Puppet a dead stare, debating if it would be worth it to just yank her off and toss her out the window. Deciding that doing such a thing would ultimately be a bad idea, she simply reach over and pulled some scissors out of her bag, then flipped the visor down to look in the mirror.

It took some work, but she eventually able to get the rope around her neck cut off, and pull the bag off her head. Now able to see better, she took a look at the stitches over her mouth, finding them crudely done and encrusted with blood. She traced over them, but flinched back at the flash of pain it caused.

' _There's no way I can take these out myself._ ' Doing it wrong could literally cause her to die. But she couldn't go to a hospital with Scout. ' _Screw it. Sammy's a doctor, and he still owes me big time. So he gets to help me with this._ '

She pulled her notebook and pencil out of her bag, flipping it over to the next blank page.

_We're going to my cousin's house. He's going to help us._

Scout read it as she scribbled it out. "That's your plan? Hope that another Host, like, just decides to help us?"

_No. I'm going to blackmail him. And if he tells anybody then the whole family is going to find out exactly how he paid his way through med school._

"Woah. Hardcore." Was all the Puppet had to say on the matter. Taking that as acceptance of her plan, Stacy pulled out her phone and sent Sammy a quick text that she'd be at his house soon. Then she put her car back into drive and took off, going just below the speed limit.

It took half an hour to reach Sammy's apartment, and the whole drive was spent in tense silence. Stacy had to fight the urge to look behind her every few minutes for Rosco or Sock Puppets, while Scout had spent most of the time laying in her lap. Not by choice, of course, but because Stacy didn't want her to be seen. So she laid there, bored out of her mind as she watched her terrified Host try and get them to safety.

Still, neither had felt the kind of relief that came they finally entered the town Sammy lived in, Stacy even sighing when she saw the lights down the road. From there it was only a few more minutes before they reached his apartment complex.

Once they had parked, Stacy spent a minute shoving everything back into her bag. She then spent a good five minutes trying to pull on a hoodie she'd left in the truck. Once she had it on and settled properly, she was able to tuck Scout under it to keep her hidden. The Puppet hadn't been too happy about that, but Stacy figured it was a small price to pay for getting the stitches out.

Gripping her hoodie tightly she sprinted across the lot and to the door, making her way inside. Once there she ran up the stairs as quickly as she could without tripping until she reached the right floor. 

' _409, 411, 413! Sammy's place!_ ' She banged on it as hard as she could, as though that would make him come out faster. ' _Come on, com on! Hurry up!_ ' The second the door opened Stacy forced herself inside, closing the door behind her and locking it up as tight as she could.

"Woah, Stace! Calm down. Come on, just tell me what's going on." She just rolled her eyes before turning around and signing rapidly at him.

" _Whatever you do don't freak out. And you can't tell anyone or I will tell everyone in our family how you really paid for med school I swear to God!_ "

"Oh my God! Is your mouth _sewn closed_?!" Stacy nodded, then took off her hoodie. Scout blinked at the sudden brightness, turning to face the other Human.

"Uh, hi?" She greeted.

" _WHAT THE FUCK?!_ " Sammy screamed and stumbled back, falling over one of his kitchen chairs. Scout flinched back while Stacy just rolled her eyes again. "What the fuck is that?! Stacy what did you do?! Holy shit!" He picked himself up and ran around to the other side of the table, grabbing a large knife on the way.

" _Nothing you idiot!_ " Stacy signed at him. " _It's a long story. And I'll tell you after you cut my mouth open._ "

"Nuh uh, no way am I getting near that thing!" He told her, brandishing the knife. 

"Excuse you! I'm not a fucking "thing" asshole!" Scout honestly looked like she would try and strangle him if she wasn't attached to Stacy. So the Host decided to try and salvage things. 

" _Sammy, please don't be rude. Scout's nice. Also, if you don't help us everyone will know everything. Everything, Sammy. Do you really want that?_ "

A pause, then Sammy finally slammed the knife on the table. "Stop bringing that up!"

"Then help us."

"FINE!" Sammy finally started towards the bathroom, where he kept an extensive medical kit. Stacy grabbed the knife and placed it up on the top shelf in one of his cabinets, then did the same with the rest of Sammy's knives. She then pulled out a chair and sat down, propping her left arm up on the table to give Scout a good view of the apartment.

Her cousin came back ten minutes later, medical kit in hand and stinking of weed. He hesitated briefly at the sight of Scout, then dropped the box on the table and opened it up. Then went to get a lamp so he could actually see what he was doing.

"Okay, tilt your head up and _don't move_. And don't let your little friend move either. I can't have any distractions while I'm doing this." Stacy nodded and did as he asked. He then prepped a needle with a numbing agent that was injected around her mouth.

Scout watched all of this, staying quiet. Not that she couldn't think of anything to say, of course. There was plenty of commentary running through her head at the moment. It was more fear that kept her quiet upon realizing that this Host was like Riley. He probably had a whole bunch of Host corpses and organs hidden in a room somewhere, and she had no desire to join them.

So she stayed silent, watching as Sammy carefully removed all the stitches one by one. When they were all out she stretched her mouth open wide enough that her jaw popped, reaching up to rub at it.

"Ow..." She moaned while Sammy got her a bottle of water. She practically snatched it out of his hands and chugged the whole thing while him and Scout watched. When she'd finished he pulled out a disinfectant cream to smear over the holes.

"I want you to stay here for the rest of your Break so I can watch for infections." He told her as he worked. "And after you head back I want you to tell me the second it starts to look or feel weird, or if food starts tasting bad when it shouldn't."

"Yeah." Stacy croaked out. Sammy accepted that and went to pack his things back up, but stopped and stared at Scout. Or, more specifically, the stitches that kept her attached to Stacy's arm. She followed his gaze, and decided to ask the important question.

"Hey. Scout." Her words were slurred a little thanks to the numbing agent. "Will you die if you come off my arm?"

"Uh." That was a loaded question. "No? I don't really need a Host to be alive."

The Host stared for a moment longer before turning to Sammy. "Go on ahead and cut her off. Just don't kill her." And then let her head fall onto the table with a loud thud, making him and Scout both jump.

The two shared a glance before Sammy set up another syringe of numbing fluid to inject into the arm. He then set up the tools needed to remove those stitches.

"So. Do I even want to know who or what sewed you to my cousin's arm?" He asked as he started removing the stitches. Scout stared resolutely at the ceiling while he did so, trying to distract herself. She winched slightly with every bit of thread pulled out, but other than that forced herself not to react to what he was doing.

"Not unless you want some vicious fucking nightmares, dude." She told him. He just gave a small noise in acknowledgement as he worked. "Seriously. You won't sleep again."

"Sounds great." Oh, the sarcasm was thick with this one. It actually made Scout kind of like him a little bit. 

Scout could feel it when the last stitch was pulled out and, while Sammy was hesitating on whether to pull her off or not, simply crawled away by herself. This was the wrong thing to do as Sammy immediately freaked out again.

"FUCK! Wow, nope! Nopenopenope! This is too much for me I'm going to bed goodnight!" He fled from the kitchen, and Stacy heard him slam his bedroom door. She lifted her head up and stared at it. She then stood to go wash the blood off her arm so she could bandage it properly. She then grabbed the disinfectant and applied a heavy layer over the wounds before wrapping it in gauze.

"So. What now?" Scout finally asked as Stacy finished up. The Human simply stood there for a moment, then scooped the Puppet up and went to the small loveseat in front of the TV, ignoring her protests. She flopped down on it and turned on Netflix, letting Scout drop onto her stomach.

"Now we lay here and do nothing." Stacy finally told her, dropping the remote on the floor. She had no idea what was playing, only that she needed a background noise to fall asleep to. When she felt Scout start moving around she covered her with a hand, pinning her in place.

Tomorrow she would have to make a plan, and even now there was a list forming in her mind. But for now she was content to sleep the night's events away. 

After all, tomorrow would be better, for it was an unseen day.


	2. Skyrim and Laundry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is here, folks! Here we delve a little bit more into Scout's head and see her reactions to stuff.

When Scout woke up, she couldn't recognize where she was for a minute. It was only when she heard muffled singing that she remembered what had happened. They had actually managed to escape. Alive.

' _I can't believe we actually got out. I didn't think it was even possible._ ' 

She sat up and looked around the room, able to see better now thanks to the light streaming in through the windows. The wallpaper was a faded blue and yellow, the carpet was a stained brown, and there were metal cans all over the floor.

Somehow, though, it was still better than the HQ. Maybe it was the lack of bloodstains and slumped over bodies. Or maybe it was the sunlight streaming in through the window over the sink, making the whole room look brighter.

She Jumped to the coffee table, and then to one of the kitchen chairs. From there she was able to climb onto the table, and get a better view of where to go next. Not that there were a lot of options, of course.

' _Hmm, the counter seems like a good idea. And there might be something cool there..._ ' She spotted a good area by the fridge and Jumped to it right as her Host wandered in, hair looking damp. Scout watched as she opened the fridge without acknowledging the Puppet, humming some song she'd never heard before. When she closed the door, the Puppet decided to finally announce her presence.

"Hey-"

The Human shrieked, dropping the bottle she'd been holding. Orange liquid went everywhere, soaking the rugs laid out over the linoleum. She clutched at her chest and gave a pained wheeze.

"Ho-ly shit." Scout deadpanned. "You have a great set of lungs." Yeah she was laying the sarcasm on a little thick, but she felt justified in doing so. Who just screams like that, anyways?

"I forgot you were here." The Host gasped out, leaning down to pick up the bottle. She gave it a disappointed look before throwing it in the trash and grabbing the paper towels. "How'd you even get up there, anyways?"

"I Jumped." If she sounds smug, her Host doesn't comment on it. Instead she wiped up the juice and got a bottle of water out of the fridge instead. She then grabbed something foil-wrapped from a cupboard and leaned against the counter to eat it.

"So," She started after swallowing a bite, "Sammy's already left for work, so it's just us here. Which means we can do pretty much anything we want, so long as I, uh, stick his rugs in the washer first." She grimaced, then took another bite as she waited for a response. When none came she decided to suggest a few things. "He has video-games, Netflix, and some books but I think they're all medical textbooks."

"Video-games?" Scout could vaguely remember seeing something about those on the TV. Commercials mostly, but sometimes they showed up in the shows she watched. She wasn't entirely sure what they were, but figured it was something fun. Or torturous. They did have "game" in the name, after all, and the only games she knew involved Puppets dying at the end.

"Video-games it is! We just gotta take these things down to the laundry room first Lemme find a basket..." She left the room briefly, returning with a faded plastic basket. As she picked each rug up, trying to be quick so they wouldn't drip onto the floor, Scout took a chance and Jumped onto her back. The Host jumped, but other than that didn't react much beyond turning her head to give Scout a look.

"You don't have to come along. I shouldn't take too long." She told the Puppet. Scout just shrugged in response, wrapping her small arms around the Human's neck.

"I know, but I-" ' _don't want to be on my own please don't leave me alone_ ' "-want to see how it's done."

The Human blinked. "It's...not really all that interesting. Kinda boring actually." But she didn't do anything to actually stop Scout as she approached the door. She grabbed the handle, but paused before she opened the door. Her breathing began to speed up as she stared at it, tightening her grip. She let go and slowly backed away, only to suddenly drop the basket as she made a beeline to the bedroom.

Once there, she dropped to the floor and reached under the bed, pulling out a metal baseball bat. Now armed, she went back to the door and yanked it open, barely remembering the basket as she fast-walked to the elevator. Upon the doors closing, she breathed a small sigh of relief and wiped some water off of her face.

When the elevator reached the basement, she went over to the nearest washer and dumped the clothes in. She then quickly measured out soap and poured it in. She set the timer on the machine and her phone, but paused before she closed the washer and looked over at Scout.

"What?" Her eyes darted between the Puppet and the washer. "Oh don't you even fucking dare."

"You are kinda filthy, though. The bloodstains are gross, and they were there even before you got sewn to my hand."

"You don't fucking need to put me in there, though." Scout glared. "I can just wash in the sink."

"Alright." She closed the lid, then started the washer and timer. "I'll get you some soap or something later. Maybe do that when we get home..." She was mumbling now, words becoming indistinct as she walked back to the elevator, still gripping the bat.

After they made it back up, Host went over to the TV and turned it on, changing the channel. She then turned on a black box underneath it and grabbed a controller, sitting cross-legged on the couch. Scout dropped herself into her lap to get a better view, gaining a brief, odd look from the Human.

"Alright, let's see what kind of games he has on here..." She scrolled through the menu. "Oooh! Skyrim! I think you'll like this one, Scout!" She selected the game, and they watched the opening cut-scene play. 

Scout watched her play for a while, through a dragon attack and delving into an ancient ruin and fighting rotted zombies. It was one of the most amazing things Scout had seen since she first found that old TV, and somehow it was her Host doing it all. She wondered, vaguely, if maybe she'd be able to play too at some point. Which is why she was so mad when the phone beeped and Host paused the game, grabbing Scout and leaving the couch.

"Hey, wait! What about the game?!" She wanted to reach for it, but knew it would be futile as Host carried her farther away from the couch.

"It'll be here when we get back, don't worry." The Host assured her as she picked up the bat. "But first we have to swap the rugs to the dryer. It's rude not to, and someone could move them onto the floor if we wait." The Puppet crossed her arms and grumbled, but didn't protest further. So she left the apartment and went straight for the elevator, getting in as soon as the doors opened.

She was able to move the rugs to a free dryer without incident, even explaining a little bit of the process to Scout. The entire time the Puppet hung from around her neck and watched over her shoulder with interest. This changed when the elevator doors opened again, and a woman and young girl walked out, each carrying a basket full of clothes.

Scout went limp, a sudden fear running through her as the two other Hosts walked past. Her Host tensed up, but otherwise didn't react. She simply walked towards the elevator with her bat gripped tight in her hand, other hand coming up to grab Scout's arm. Just when they thought they were gonna get off scot-free, a voice piped up from behind them, startling Scout into attempting a Jump.

"Excuse me, lady? I like your dolly!" The voice was high-pitched and adorable, but that didn't help Scout's cold terror. If anything, it just made it worst. Daisy had sounded like that too, after all.

The Host turned, tightening her grip on Scout's arm. "Thank you!" Her voice was way too perky for the situation, in Scout's opinion. Too fake sounding. "I like her too."

"Where'd you get her?" The girl asked, bouncing on her heels. Her mother was loading clothes into one of the washers behind her, but Scout could see her watching them. 

"She was a gift, actually. I don't know where he got her from, though. He didn't tell me" She told the girl with a smile. 

' _Liar. _' Scout thought but didn't say. She was too busy trying to look like a normal puppet, though it was a pain to try and keep her eyes still. Instead she focused on the wall and kept her gaze there, watching the girl and mother from the corner of her eye.__

__"Okay! Thanks anyways lady!" The girl waved before heading back to her mother. The Host waved back with another smile before going into the elevator as fast as she could. Neither her or Scout relaxed until the doors had closed and it started moving. Scout relaxed so much she almost fell off._ _

__"That was fucking terrifying." She exclaimed while the Host scrambled to catch her. She held her in her arms like one would a doll, letting Scout flop over almost limp from relief._ _

__"It wasn't that bad." She shrugged. "It was just a little kid."_ _

__"Yeah but she could've told the government!" Scout looked up at the Human. "I don't want to be fucking experimented on! I had enough of that crap from Riley!"_ _

__"Don't worry so much! You'll be fine!" She dismissed as they reached Sammy's floor. "Besides, kids are the best ones to know about you. Nobody ever believes them when they say something's going on. No matter how much they insist on it" There was a bitter tone to her voice. Before Scot could question it, though, they made it to the apartment and it vanished as she spoke again. "Now come on! We gotta go kill some Thalmor!"_ _

__The next half hour was passed by the Host playing Skyrim, this time with commentary from Scout. Everything that happened, she had something to say about it, even if it was just insulting the characters._ _

__"Yeah, you eat that lightning you fucking lizard! What are you gonna do about tha- _oh shit!_ He bit your face off!" Scout gave a surprised laugh as the Dragonborn died, flung away by the Frost Dragon they'd been fighting._ _

__"Okay! That's enough of that!." The Host shut off the game, throwing the controller back on the shelf it had come from. "It's almost time to get the rugs out of the dryer, anyways. You wanna come again?"_ _

__"No way. There might be more Hosts down there." Scout told her. "Not that I'm, like, scared of them, or anything. But it'll be easier if I'm not there. Y'know?"_ _

__"Uh, yeah. That's fine if you want to stay." One look at her Host told her it probably wasn't fine. But before Scout could go back on what she'd said the Human had already picked up the bat and basket. "I'll be back in a few minutes, and we'll watch some more Netflix."_ _

__Scout watched her leave, feeling a pang of... something in her chest. It was making her feel bad, so she elected to ignore it for now. Instead she took the chance to Jump around the apartment, exploring what she hadn't been able to yet._ _

__It was definitely something, to see the Host World up close and in person. Many things were different than what the TV had shown her. They were much less clean, for one, though that might just be Sammy. Although her Host hadn't made much of an effort to clean up after herself besides washing the rugs either. So maybe Hosts were just messy._ _

__Speaking of, Scout realized she didn't know her Host's name. She knew she must have one, as Sammy had one, and the Hosts on TV had names. So she tried to think back to what Sammy might have called her._ _

__' _What was it he said? Stack? Lace? Stace? I think it was Stace... Short for Stacy, maybe?_ ' She shook her head. ' _It doesn't matter. One of them has to say her name at some point, right? I'm sure I'll learn it by the end of the night._ ' She smacked herself on the head, then did it again to turn off her light. ' _Stop rhyming, dumbass! You're not one of them, and you never will be again!_ ' She smacked herself again, harder this time, and shook her head. ' _STOP!_ '_ _

__When her Host - Stacy? - came back, Scout watched her sweep the floor and lay the rugs down from the counter. When she had finished, it looked much better than it had before, even if it was most likely sticky under there now. She then grabbed Scout and carried her back over to the couch._ _

__"So, what do you wanna watch?" She asked as she turned on Netflix and started scrolling through the shows. Some she would linger on, but others she skipped over quickly._ _

__"How about what we were watching last night? I liked that one."_ _

__"You mean _The Good Place_?" She went up to the search bar and started typing it in. "That's what we watched last night."_ _

__"Yeah, that one was cool. Eleanor's my favorite. She takes no shit." And she swore more than Scout did, which was always a plus in her book._ _

__"Alright, we'll watch this one until Sammy gets home." Stacy selected it, and scrolled over to the episode she'd fallen asleep on. "Don't know when that'll be, but maybe he'll bring food with him."_ _

__Scout made a noncommittal hum, not caring about the food. All she cared about was whether Eleanor would get caught or not._ _

__Whether they would get caught, or not._ _


	3. Food?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third chapter is out! Not much to say about this one, expect that we finish up the day with some delicious Chinese takeout! Nothing heavy going on in here! Nope! Not at all!

When Stacy felt Scout was sufficiently distracted, she pulled her laptop out of her bag. ' _Let's see, what was the group that guy was a part of? Vox I think..._ ' She searched the group on Google, and found them almost immediately. She clicked the link to their website, and was struck by how professional it looked.

' _So these guys are paranormal investigators..._ ' From what the site said, they were a professional team that specialized in locating and researching. Specifically, they went after the newer, modern activity, like the Waygetter toys, or cursed animatronics.

' _Where were you guys when I was a kid?_ ' She shook her head. ' _Focus, Stacy! Forget the past, focus on the present! You have a different problem to solve..._ ' She scrolled down and clicked on the contact button, which gave her an email address. She clicked over to her own email and typed in the address, but paused before writing anything.

' _What do I even say to them? They didn't believe that Anthony guy, and he was one of them. Maybe if I send them proof..._ ' Her eyes drifted to Scout, who was staring at the TV. Her attention was completely taken by the show, and she seemed oblivious to what Stacy was doing and thinking. ' _A picture might not be enough, but maybe a video? But would she even agree to it? And could I even do that to her?_ '

Stacy shook her head, closing the laptop with a small sigh. ' _I can't. Not right now. Maybe once things are settled..._ ' She moved the computer to the side and stood up, stretching as much as she could. She then went into the kitchen and started digging through Sammy's fridge.

' _Ugh, he's such a bachelor. There's nothing in here but some old lettuce and leftover soup. He'd better be buying groceries on his way back from work, or I'm telling Aunt Hannah he has no food again._ ' She closed the door, and then grabbed some bread and peanut-butter from the cupboard, and the last clean knife from one of the drawers. She quickly made herself a simple sandwich, cut it in half, then went back to the couch.

"Where'd you go?" Scout asked when she'd sat back down. She flopped over onto her lap, making Stacy jerk her plate up to keep it from getting hit. "You're missing the show!"

"I've seen it before, don't worry." Stacy assured her as she bit into the sandwich. "I'm not missing anything important."

"Hey, what's that?" She climbed into her lap and peered onto the plate, reminding Stacy of a cat. "Is that Host Food?"

"Yeah, it's a peanut-butter sandwich. I got hungry, and it was all Sammy had to eat, other than gross leftovers." She took another bite of sandwich, not really paying attention as Scout pulled the plate down a little. She watched the Puppet grab the other half of the sandwich' _Gross._ ', and examine it closely. Then, without warning, she tore a bite off and started chewing.

Stacy froze mid-chew, unsure of how to react. While she knew Scout had to have organs, she hadn't thought she actually could eat anything. It was quite surreal, watching a thing made of cloth chew and swallow real, human food.

"Hmm, not bad. Kind of sticky, though." She smacked her lips, then tore off another bite and turned back around to keep watching the show, leaving Stacy feeling like she'd smoked some of her cousin's weed. She shook the feeling off, though, deciding to come back to it at a later time. Like maybe when she'd actually had some weed.

Instead she finished her half of the sandwich(since she apparently only got to have half, now), and then pulled back out her laptop. She opened up a new doc, and started drafting up some plans.

' _One way or another, I'm gonna figure this out._ '

Several hours later, and Stacy had not figured it out. She had maybe one and a half pages of notes on the Puppets, most of which was on just Scout, and three different plans.

_1\. Go to the police.  
-Too Risky for Scout  
-Can lie about what's going on if needed_

_2\. Ask Vox for help.  
-Way too risky for Scout and me  
-Can't lie to these guys about it  
-They would know what they're doing tho_

_3\. Arson.  
-Has potential  
-Can have a bon fire and roast marshmallows while we do it  
-Could get arrested but might be worth it if we can get all the Puppets  
-Might also be worth it just to see Scout try and eat a melty marshmallow_

So far, plan number three was looking like the best one. It still wasn't the absolute best plan, but it was all they had at the moment. She'd have to talk to Will and see if he still had those gas cans in his garage. 

"Hey, are you guys still here?" Stacy started at the sudden entrance of Sammy, surprised at how late it had gotten. She shut her laptop and put it to the side for now, standing up.

"No, we left and stole all of your soup." She told him. What you're seeing now is a hunger induced hallucination."

Sammy paused, the held up a plastic bag with a panda on it. "So you _don't_ want the takeout I got?"

"Oooh, gimme!" Stacy rushed to snatch the bag from her cousin. She brought it over to the table, pausing briefly to pick Scout up from the couch. She started to set the food out while the Puppet settled over her shoulder, watching what she did. While she worked, she also pointed out what each different food was.

"So, all of this stuff is rice. We don't normally eat it, but they include it anyways with some of the meals. This is teriyaki chicken, and this is-"

"Stacy, really? Why would it even need to know what that stuff is?" Sammy tsked as he sat at the table and grabbed some noodle dish. "It's stuffed, and can't eat."

Stacy just stuck her tongue out at him and sat down. She picked up a pair of chopsticks and set about showing Scout how to hold and use them properly.

For awhile, they ate silently as Scout watched them, which Stacy personally thought was a little odd but didn't want to say anything. If the Puppet wanted to be weird, then she wasn't going to stop her. Sammy, on the other hand, soon fixed her with a hard stare and cleared his throat.

"So." Stacy looked up at him mid-chew, cheeks bulging. "What are you going to do when you get back to your apartment?"

She swallowed hard, putting on a more thoughtful expression. "Go back to class, tell Carol I can't do the article and why, maybe go tell the police about the psychopaths in the warehouse." She shrugged, digging out another bite of chicken from one of the boxes. "Y'know, stuff."

"And what about...?" He gestured to Scout with his chopsticks, and the Puppet glared back at him. Stacy, in a stroke of seldom seen genius, offered the Puppet her chicken before she could say anything.

"She's coming with me, of course. I live alone, so there shouldn't be a problem." Scout chomped down on the chicken, to Stacy's mild surprise. She quickly picked up some more food for herself. "Besides, Will is gonna love her. They're so much alike."

"Okay, ignoring the fact that you just fed that thing," Scout made an offended noise. "that sounds like a shit plan. There's no way in hell the police will believe you without proof."

"Fine, you're right. I have a back-up plan in the works, too." She thought back to her arson idea as she offered another bite to Scout. "But it needs work, so I can't put it in action yet." _And gasoline. Lots and lots of gasoline._ '

"... Where's that food even going, anyways?" Both Sammy and Stacy turned to stare at Scout, who didn't even pause in her chewing to send them both a glare. Obviously, she wasn't going to be explaining anything, so Stacy turned back to her cousin.

"I have no idea. Don't think too hard on it." 

' _Don't think about why you're feeding her, either._ ' She ignored her own thoughts to shove some more food in her mouth. That was something to think about later. Or, perhaps, never. Never seemed like a much better time.

They finished their food, with Stacy giving Scout a few more bites, then boxed up the leftovers and put them in the fridge. Stacy then made Sammy get them a blanket because "It was too cold last night I almost froze to death!"

"It wasn't that bad, Stace." He told her, but fished out some spare bedding anyways. "It was near sixty."

"And yet, you had the air on or something. I swear it was colder than that in here." She insisted. She almost shivered just thinking about it. "You need to turn the AC off."

"The Ac's not on." He frowned at her, head tilted like he was studying one of his patients. "Maybe you're getting sick? You did spend God knows how long running around an abandoned warehouse with open wounds. I wouldn't be surprised if you caught something."

"God I hope not." She muttered, helping him spread the blanket out on the couch. "I gotta drive back to my apartment tomorrow. I don't wanna be sick while doing that."

"Well, if you do come down with something, promise me you'll go straight to the walk-in clinic or ER." Sammy told her seriously. "It could be something worse than a cold, like an infection from the stitches."

"Promises are curses." Stacy responded automatically. "But if something comes up, I will go to the walk-in. I don't wanna die after going through all of that bullshit." 

"Wow, you're swearing. Must have been some pretty bad bullshit." He joked as he handed her a pillow. She resisted the urge to hit him with it.

"It was the second worst thing I've ever been through. It was horrible, and I hated it, but now it's over forever." Her eye twitched slightly as she placed the pillow on the couch, and saw Scout watching them from the side table. She was overcome with a childish urge to knock Scout over onto the pillow, which she quickly did.

"Wha-? Hey!" She pulled the blanket up over the Puppet, and heard a soft snort of amusement from Sammy.

"Are you ever going to grow up." He shook his head with a sigh as they watched the blanket covered lump move around.

"Nope!" She told him cheerfully. "I'mma be a kid forever!" She noticed the lump had stopped moving and leaned down, reaching for the blanket. "Uh, Scout? You oka-"

"DEATH FROM ABOVE!" Scout hit the back Stacy's head with far more force than necessary, knocking her onto the couch. She then bit onto the top of her head, though that didn't do much.

"AAUGH! How'd you even get up there?!?" She became aware of laughter and turned a death glare on her cousin. "Stop laughing! It's not funny Samuel!" She threw the pillow at him, but that didn't stop the almost hysterical laughter coming from him.

"Oh my God!" He gasped out, collapsing against the couch. "She just came out of nowhere! Holy shit!" He fell onto the floor while Stacy wrestled the apparently feral Puppet off of her head. She held her at arm's length, trying to simultaneously give her a disapproving look and check her over for injuries. It was hard to do, however, as she kept trying to bite her hand.

"Dude, seriously? That's not even gonna do anything to me..." She watched Scout thrash for a moment, actually struggling to hold onto her. "Okay, seriously, stop it right now, or you're going back under the blanket and I'm gonna sit on you." That got her to stop, but she kept up the death glare.

"Geez..." She looked over at Sammy, who was coughing on the floor, finally finished laughing. "It wasn't that funny..."

"It was fucking hilarious." He retorted between coughs. "Instant karma." He took a deep breath and started to pull himself up from the floor. "I like that Puppet."

Stacy just sighed. "Whatever dude. Glad to know my pain is what made you like her." Unconsciously, she hugged Scout close and sat on the couch. She grabbed up the remote to turn Netflix back on, wanting a distraction from her humiliation. She let Scout drop onto her lap, and resisted the urge to drop her head into her hands.

' _Defeated by a hand puppet. I'm never living this down._ '

Sammy climbed up onto the couch seconds later, still wheezing. He went to speak, but another death glare shut him up before he could start. So he just shot her a smug look instead, holding out a hand for Scout to fist bump.

"That was a pretty great move." He told the Puppet. Stacy ignored him, but heard a quiet "Hell yeah!" from Scout. "You should do it again the next time she does that." 

"Do you want to die?" Stacy deadpanned, but Sammy just shrugged as he finally settled in to watch the show with them.

"Hey, it's just a suggestion." He couldn't keep that grin off of his face, and it was starting to annoy her.

"Whatever." She resolved to just ignore everything for now and watch the show. Sammy attempted a few more times to draw her into conversation, but quickly gave up when she didn't answer him and started watching too.

A few episodes later, however, and Sammy stood up and stretched. "Well, I need to get to bed, I have work tomorrow." He started towards his room. "I'll be gone by the time you two leave, so make sure you lock up tomorrow, okay?"

"Kay. G'night Sammy." Stacy gave a halfhearted wave as he left, leaving Host and Puppet alone for the night.

"Leave?" Scout asked after they heard his door close. Stacy glanced down to see the Puppet staring up at her, a worried look on her face.

"Yeah. We gotta go home tomorrow." Stacy told her. "I gotta tell Carol about what happened at the HQ and find out what she wants me to do about that article. And then classes start back up soon, so I've gotta be back by then."

"... I thought we were staying here." Scout said quietly, and Stacy felt a pang of... something. She wasn't sure what, but it made her feel bad and she decided right then that she hated it.

"Eh, it was more of a stopping point, really. Some place to get my mouth cut open and you off my hand." She shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. "And as much as I would love to hide here until I die, we can't actually stay on Sammy's couch forever. He doesn't have any food, and would expect me to clean."

"..." Scout was silent, and no longer paying attention to the show, instead staring down at her hands as she played with the hem of Stacy's shirt. The Human felt like she should say something, but didn't know what. Instead she stopped the show and turned off the TV, dropping the Puppet to the side and standing up.

"I'm gonna get ready and go to bed myself. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and I want to make sure I'm ready for it." She started towards the bathroom, almost missing the quiet "Okay." in reply. She hesitated at the doorway, but forced herself through anyways.

Scout would figure out it was better this way. Her apartment was even further from the HQ than Sammy's was, and thus safer than Sammy's. Plus, it would be better if it was just the two of them alone, and they could figure things out.

Things would get better, starting tomorrow.

They had to.


	4. Home at Last

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fourth chapter, once again from Scout's POV! Idk, I think I'm getting better at writing her. Also a little bit more of a look into Stacy’s life, and what her personality is like.

"So, you ready for another ride in the truck?" Stacy asked as she locked up Sammy's apartment. True to what he'd said, he was long gone by the time they'd woken up, much to Scout's disappointment. She'd wanted to at least say goodbye, though Stacy had assured her that she'd see him again at soon enough.

"He wants to keep an eye on the stitch wounds, make sure they're healing right. So we have to come back here next week." She'd said. "Also, he's my favorite cousin. He kind of has to deal with me coming over, anyways."

While that hadn't actually made the Puppet feel any better, she did appreciate the effort. It actually meant a lot to Scout that Stacy would at least try to be comforting.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Scout replied from her hiding place in her Host's hood. She was mostly behind Stacy's neck, with her head peeking around the side to better see what was going on. Yeah she was surrounded by and covered in hair, but it was better than the other option of hiding in the bag. At least this way she could see things.

And see things she did. What had been hidden from her the other night now held a strange beauty in the bluish light of predawn. Buildings with darkened windows, street lamps starting to dim down, trees just starting to grow leaves. To the Puppet, who had only ever viewed the world through a TV screen, everything looked new and beautiful.

The entire, short, walk to Stacy's truck, Scout had to fight the urge to launch herself from her hiding spot in order to see better. It was too risky, even with how early it was. Anyone could glance out their window and see her, and she wasn't ready for that just yet.

As they made it to the vehicle, it beeped at them as the lights flashed, startling Scout. Stacy climbed into the truck and tossed her bag into the passenger seat. She then lowered her hood and gently dropped Scout on top of her bag. "You gotta ride over there. I need to concentrate on the road. Also I'm going to get us some Wendy's for the trip. What do you want to try from there?"

Scout didn't answer and instead climbed into Stacy's lap in order to plaster her face to the window. She ignored Stacy when her Host sighed, and watched as they pulled out of the lot and on to the road.

As they passed by the buildings, and occasional tree, Scout found herself getting more and more excited. ' _The TV never told me just how big everything is out here. Or how many Hosts there are._ ' She thought as they turned into another parking lot and approached a weird looking box with a speaker . ' _... I don't think I thought this through enough. What if they all react like Sammy did? Fuck, I want to go back._ '

"Welcome to Wendy's, how may I help you?" Scout jerked at the strange voice, and turned to look up at Stacy, who wasn't staring at a box full of pictures of food. She glanced down and, seeing the Puppet staring, gave her a quick pat on the head.

"Yeah, I'd like a single cheeseburger combo with a coke and a kid's meal with chocolate milk." She told the box as she did this, ignoring Scout as the Puppet fixed her with a death glare for her antics.

"What kind of kid's meal would you like?" The box sounded rushed. In the background, beyond the static, Scout heard a loud crash.

"Uh..." Stacy turned and stared at the Puppet for a long moment, almost to the point of discomfort. "Chicken nuggets? No sauce please."

"That'll be $11.83 please pull forward to the first window." The box shut off with a click, and Stacy slowly started driving up to the first window while Scout just stared at her.

When they reached the window, the Host reached for her bag and dug out a small, flat rectangle. When the window opened, she handed it to the Host inside, who did something with it before handing it back. Said Host also ignored Scout completely, which was just fine with her.

"What was that?" The Puppet asked as they drove to the next window. Nothing like that had ever come up in the shows she'd watched, nor had any of the Puppets at HQ ever mentioned anything about it.

"Me paying for our food." Stacy responded. "Money is very important to, uh, Host society. Remind me to teach you more about it later, it's something you'll need to know." She handed Scout the small rectangle. "Here, you can look at it if you want. Just don't break it."

The window opened then, and the Host inside handed Stacy a white cup with a lid and a small bottle. She put these in the cup holders, and then grabbed the two bags that were handed out next. She thanked the Host inside, dropped the bags in the passenger seat, and drove away. She parked again a few feet later, though, and grabbed the bags.

"Okay, so this one is mine." She pulled the white bag closer to her, then picked Scout up and set her in front of the more colorful one. "And this one is for you. Don't worry if you make a mess, I'll clean it up later."

Scout stared at the bag for a moment, then pulled it over so she could reach inside and pull out the food that was supposedly in there. Underneath some brown papery things and a plastic bag, there were several long, skinny yellow sticks, and four fat brown things. She picked up a few of the yellow ones first and shoved them in her mouth, having to fold them up a bit to make them fit. She mashed them up, then tipped her head up to swallow as she glanced over at her Host, who was eating the large sandwich she'd ordered.

"These taste weird." Scout spoke up, shoving yet more into her mouth. It was certainly different than what they had eaten the night before. Less soft, for one, but not so hard she couldn't "chew" them.

"It's fast food. It's supposed to taste weird." Stacy told her. "What you're eating now is french fries, the brown things are chicken nuggets, and I have a cheese burger. And then we have coke and chocolate milk to drink."

"Hmm." Scout picked up a nugget and stuck it in her mouth, finding it chewier than the fries. It reminded her of the red things she'd had last night, and she wondered if it was something similar. She then grabbed the bottle and gave it a shake, scowling when she heard liquid inside.

' _Noooo thank you..._ ' She put the bottle back and picked up more fries. ' _Stacy can have that._ '

They continued to eat their food in silence, with Scout watching as they slowly left the buildings behind to only simple blue sky. Climbing back up she could see that it wasn't as empty as it seemed. Miles of green plains were all she could see, but there was the occasional house or grouping of trees. Sometimes there were also large, strange animals.

"It's so empty..." She hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud until Stacy answered her.

"Yeah, most of us like to live all clumped together, but we still have need for, like, farms and stuff. Most of what's out there now is fields for growing food. They should be planting them soon, actually, if they haven't already." She told her. "You might be able to see some of the machines if you look for them."  
Scout could see some odd looking cars in the fields, but wasn't entirely sure if that was what Stacy was talking about. Instead she rested her head on her folded arms and simply enjoyed the view.

Sitting there, watching trees and houses and other cars pass by, made the Puppet feel more relaxed than she'd ever been in her entire life. She sunk even deeper into that feeling when Stacy clicked the radio on and music filled the small space. Her Host started singing along to whatever song was on, and the Puppet gave a small sigh of contentment.

Life was good on the outside.

"Welp, here we are." Stacy finally announced as she pulled into another lot in front of a brick building. Scout jolted awake at the sound of her voice, having fallen asleep at some point in the journey. Shaking her head, she watched as Stacy gathered up the "fast food" trash and shoved it into the white bag. She then grabbed up her own bag and Scout before finally opening the door and stepping out into the open air.

As Scout quickly crawled into the hood, she was struck by how similar the building was to Sammy's home. If it weren't for the fact she knew they were somewhere completely different, Scout would be worried they'd gone in a circle.  
Stacy jogged up the steps and into the building, heading straight for the stairs. she paused only briefly to make sure her bag was settled properly and Scout was there before starting the long climb.

"We can't take the elevator?" Scout asked as they started the climb to the fourth floor. "The other place had one. And the TV said all buildings like this have one."

"Nope. Well, the building has one, but it's not for people to use." Scout blinked. Who used it then, if not people. Stacy continued to fast for her to question it, though. "And I live on the fourth floor, so that's... fun." Her grip on her bag tightened just a bit as she sped up a little. "But yeah, apartment thirteen on the fourth floor, in case you ever get lost. I'll try and get a key made for you next time I go to Home Depot."

Scout stayed silent on that. A key would be cool, but she was far too short to even use it. Still, it was nice that her Host was thinking of a detail like that, however useless it would be in reality.

When they reached the door, a shiny 413 sitting just above eye level, Stacy pulled a small key out of her bag and unlocked it. The door stuck a little, but Stacy managed to get it open and they ducked inside, with the Host locking it behind them.

"Welp, here we are. My own little home." Stacy said as she dropped her bag by the door. Scout took the chance to look around while she still had the height, before Stacy dropped her off somewhere.

Right away Scout could see a kitchen area with a larger table and four chairs around it. Behind them was a shelve filled with books, figurines, and stuffed animals. Against the far wall was a bigger couch than what Sammy had, along with a large TV. There was also a desk with two smaller TVs on it and a cool chair with wheels in front of it, and beside the shelf was another door.  
"Definitely looks cleaner than that other guy's place." She remarked as Stacy took her shoes off. Her Host bit back a laugh, shaking her head.

"Yeah, he's never really been all that clean." She said as she hung her hoodie over one of the chairs. She then started pulling her phone out of her pocket. "I've gotta make a couple of calls real quick. You can go watch Netflix or something until I'm done, okay?"

"Kay." Scout Jumped to the couch when Stacy looked down at her phone and started searching for the remote. It was easily found under a blanket, and she managed to get the bigger TV on while her Host started her call.

"Hey Will. I'm back from my most recent expedition!" She sounded perky, but the smile she had quickly faded as whoever Will was said something. "Uh, well, it kinda... didn't. Things got pretty bad in there. No, no I'm not... dead, anyways." She rubbed at the bandage on her left wrist. "And I did manage to bring home a souvenir. Kinda."

Scout looked up at that, staring openly at her Host, but was ignored. "No, she's not another pipe. I told you I wasn't bringing you any more of those. Nor a dog. Or a cat." She sounded exasperated, rolling her eyes while she started pacing behind the TV. "She's not an animal. My apartment doesn't allow pets anyways. You'll meet her when you come over tonight. No, Will, it's not an orphan child with magic powers. Well," She caught Scout's eye as she passed by again, "maybe yes on the powers part. No. Yes. Look, Babe, I still gotta call Carol about the article. Yeah, I called you first." The smile was back, but was different from the other times Scout had seen her Host smile. It sent a spike of something pleasant through her, and she quickly turned back to the screen. "Okay. Yeah, I'll see you tonight unless Carol kills me through the phone. Love you too. Bye."

"Who's Will?" Scout asked when she'd hung up the phone. She'd managed to get to Netflix, but hadn't yet selected something to watch. Not that she knew her choices, of course.

"Will's my boyfriend, you'll meet him tonight. He should be bringing pizza." She started messing with her phone again while Scout looked away, suddenly nervous. "Now just to call Carol..."

' _So there's going to be someone else who knows. Great..._ ' Scout shook her head, refocusing on the TV. ' _Remember that you wanted this, Scout. You've made it this far, you can't back out._ ' Her thoughts were interrupted by Stacy, now talking to "Carol".

"Yeah, hey Carol. I survived my latest expedition. Barely." She fingered her bandages again. "Yeah, I'll get started on the article right away, I just had to stay with my cousin for a few days. I'll explain why when I come over with my piece tomorrow. Pfft, yeah, I can totally get the whole thing written tonight, this is what I do, remember?" Scout rolled her own eyes at the cocky tone.

' _We almost died, dumbass._ '

"Yeah, I got a souvenir. No, she's not a pipe. Why does everyone think I adopted a pet? My building doesn't even allow fish!" Stacy facepalmed, shaking her head. "Yeah. Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Yeah, I'll bring her. I kind of need to so you'll believe me. You'll see tomorrow! I gotta go now. Bye." Stacy quickly hung up and let out a sigh.

"So was that one Carol?" Scout asked as she looked for The Good Place on Netflix. Unfortunately, the words all looked like gibberish to her, so she was trying to go by the pictures. It wasn't working so far, but she stayed determined.

"Yep. We gotta go talk to her tomorrow." Scout didn't miss that wording, but didn't protest it as Stacy walked over to the desk and sat in the cool chair. She leaned down fiddling with something underneath. "I gotta work on my article. Two articles, actually. I need a back-up one for tomorrow depending how Carol takes things."

While she messed with things, Scout Jumped on top of the TV, and then onto the back of the chair. She watched as Stacy did something with the small TVs, and then started making words appear. The Puppet was confused, having never seen anything like this before.

"Uh, what are you doing?" She asked, flopping onto her Host's head. Stacy paused her typing to steady the Puppet, but other than that didn't react. Scout took it as a good sign.

"Writing about what happened at the HQ. I've gotta write two separate pieces about this. What really happened, and then what Carol will probably want published after she reads the first one and meets you."

"Oh." Scout watched a bit more. "Can I help?"

Stacy paused, considering. "Actually, yes. You can tell me what happened between Mortimer casting the spell and when I woke up. I don't really remember, considering I was a zombie and all."

Her Host smiled, but Scout winced at hearing her own words thrown back at her like that. "Ummmm! You don't want to know about that. Like, at all!"

"Why not?" Stacy sounded genuinely curious, and Scout realized she probably didn't think anything had happened beyond the stitching. But there was a whole process to making a Host into, well, a Host. It was a process that Scout was far too familiar with, and that Riley had taken far too much pleasure in each time she'd had to do it.

"Look just... don't ask me that again. Riley... And..." The Puppet shook her head. "I went through it three times. I... Just, don't ask. Please." She didn't like begging., but this was the one thing she wasn't going to talk about. It was horrible, and she was glad Stacy didn't know or remember anything about it. Her Host didn't need or want that knowledge. It was bad enough that Scout had to live with it.

"Alright..." The Host focused back on the screen, and Scout gave a silent sigh in relief. "How about you make sure I get all the details right, instead? If I read it back to you when I'm done, you can make sure I got everything."

"Deal!" That was a much better option. Less telling of nightmares, and more of what Stacy already knew.

Together they worked on the first article, with Stacy reading each paragraph she wrote out loud, and Scout reminding her of anything she'd forgotten. Even with the extra work to it, together they finished it rather quickly. And when it was finally done, and Stacy had clicked on the save icon several times, the Host stood up and stretched.

"Okay, that's enough for right now. It's way past lunch time, and I gotta eat something before I take my pills." She made her way to the kitchen, Scout still on her head.

"Pills? Are ya sick?" The Puppet questioned.

"Eh, kinda?" She waved her hand in a so-so way before grabbing the ingredients for a sandwich out of the fridge. "It's mostly in the head, though."  
"What, like brain damage?" Scout was confused. She'd seen an episode of some medical show, and it had someone with brain damage in it. Stacy didn't act anything like that Host had in the show.

"Uuuuuuh, no." She put together her sandwich and then dumped a number pills onto the plate. "It's really complicated. I'll tell you later." She cut the sandwich into quarters, then added some small orange sticks from the fridge.

Scout didn't answer, still wondering what else Stacy could mean by "in the head". Her Host grabbed a bottle of water and went back to the computer. She set the plate and bottle down, then picked Scout up off her head and put her next to the plate. Puppet and food in place, she finally sat down herself.

"Okay, so this one has to make the HQ out to be both boring as hell and as dangerous as possible. We gotta make it absolutely not worth going in there." She told Scout through a bite of ham and cheese sandwich. "Like, I'm giving it a zero out of ten either way, but this has to hit home that nobody should go there while leaving out Mortimer's Fun Gang."

"Why? Shouldn't we tell the Host leaders so they can deal with it?" The Puppet asked, pausing in trying to chew through a "carrot stick". She was considering giving up on it as too hard for her plastic teeth.

"You mean the cops? Anthony tried that, remember? He got laughed out of the station. And even if they did believe us, the last thing we want those creeepos to have is guns and more Hosts." She swallowed another bite and started typing. "No, the best thing we can do is make it out to be so dangerous that nobody goes there and it dries up their supply line. They only had so many bodies in that freezer, they've gotta run out eventually."

"Hmm." Scout wasn't too sure. They had other ways of getting Hosts rather than waiting for them to stumble into the building. Riley in particular had made use of Scout's own "siblings" for those ways in the past. Waiting for people like Stacy was actually the least reliable way to get Hosts in the first place.

But Scout wasn't sure she should say so.

Instead she sat on the desk and watched as her Host typed away, stealing some ham and cheese out of one of the sandwiches. When she got tired of that, she Jumped her way back to the couch to find something to watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a blueprint of what Stacy's apartment looks like, please go here: https://www.deviantart.com/creativeskull95/art/Apartment-413-834852055


	5. Nothing is that Simple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter five is here y'all! Here we meet someone entirely new, and find that maybe Scout kept a few more secrets than even Stacy thought.
> 
> Also another peek into Stacy's past. Let's just say she's had a hell of a Christmas when she was twelve. >:3

Stacy typed up the back-up article, focusing on things that would turn would-be explorers away. So far it was bad structural integrity and recently used needles all over the place, with a dash of rabid rats crawling in the shadows. She'd have Will read it over later, make sure it was good enough to drive people away without attracting them. He was usually pretty good at that sort of thing, having helped her with it before.

Speaking of Will, she looked down when her phone dinged, a message flashing on the screen.

" _am prking now be up soon with the goods_ "

"Good news Scout! Will's just parked and is on his way up. And he brought pizza!" She announced, getting up and heading into the kitchen area. "I'll go get some plates set up."

There wasn't an answer, and to be honest Stacy didn't expect one. She wondered, briefly, if maybe she was moving Scout along too fast, but dismissed the thought. ' _It's only two more people, and then nobody else until next week. Surely she should be okay with that?_ '

She put the plates on the table, then peeked over at the couch, which was now completely empty save for the two large pillows. The corner of one pillow moved slightly, and Stacy had to suppress a snort. ' _Great hiding spot there, Scout. Wouldn't ever know you were there._ ' She turned back to the table, placing two paper plates on opposite sides of the table, and a smaller plate beside where she would sit. As she got down a couple of cups, she heard a knock on the door. Setting the cups on the counter, she rushed to the door and unlocked it.

"Will!" She greeted, taking the bottle of Mountain Dew from him. She moved away quickly so he could enter, closing and locking the door behind him.

"Hey babe." He put the pizza box on the table between the plates, then turned to look at her, doing a double take. "What the hell happened to your mouth?"

"Long story." Stacy told him. "I'll tell you all about it after you meet Scout. Wait a second while I go get her." She went over to the couch and moved one of the pillows to see Scout ducked down, glaring up at her.

"I am not coming out!" She hissed out, trying to squeeze in behind the other pillow. "You can't fucking make me!"

"Come on, you'll like Will." Stacy insisted quietly. "He's like Sammy, but, y'know, cooler."

The Puppet just shook her head, drawing back further into the little fabric cave she'd made. Stacy simply moved the pillow and picked her up, ignoring her struggling as she brought her over to her boyfriend.

"This is Scout!" She announced, holding her out to Will. Scout stayed limp in her hands, letting her head loll to the side and keeping a blank stare on her face. Stacy felt her smile fall, but was unsure of what to do. Will leaned in, examining the Puppet.

"Ew." He said. "It's a gross, old puppet." Stacy frowned and opened her mouth, but was cut off by Scout suddenly snapping upright.

"Fucking excuse you?!" She yelled. Stacy flinched at the tone. The last time she sounded that angry had been when she'd threatened to kill her.

"OH FUCK!" He drew back, arms up like she would try and jump at his face. "It's a haunted gross old puppet!"

Scout made an offended noise, and Stacy quickly pulled her back. "Don't be rude, Will! She just hasn't had a bath yet." She looked away, unsure of what else to say. ' _Should I tell her off, too?_ '

Will glanced from Puppet to Host, an increasingly worried look on his face. "I have to talk to you. In private. Right now." He then turned and went straight to the bedroom, not even waiting for an answer.

"Okay!" She put Scout down on the table, then turned and followed Will into the bedroom. She closed the door behind her, and was immediately grabbed by the shoulders.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Will whisper-shouted. "Don't you remember what happened last time?!"

"Scout's not like... that." She told him, knocking his hands away. She crossed her arms and tried to sound firm. "She doesn't need someone to feed her or brush her or coddle her. And there isn't some haunted toy hunting us down just because she's here."

"That's not the point!" He insisted, grabbing at his hair. "You've put yourself and everyone in this building in danger by bringing it here!"

"Her, Will. I think. She hasn't actually said one way or the other." Stacy shrugged, scratching at the side of her mouth and flinching when she brushed the wounds there. "And I already told you, it's not the same! This won't be like when we were kids, Will, trust me!"

"Y'know, I would love to. But then, you did this!"

"She's not even a Waygetter!" Stacy struggled to keep her voice low. 'No need for Scout to hear this. She wouldn't understand.' "I checked. She doesn't even know the company, so she's completely safe."

"It's a haunted Puppet you found in an abandoned building!"

"Ah..." That building had _not_ been abandoned in _any_ sense of the word. "She's not haunted."

"Possessed, then!" Will insisted, looking desperate.

"Also a no. She's her own person, as far as I can tell." She told him. 

Will picked up a pillow and yelled into it. Stacy waited patiently, not even reacting to the muffled sound. "How are you so calm about this?!" He asked when he finished, pillow still smooshed to his face.

She opened her mouth, then closed it with a shrug. "I dunno. It has been a few days, though. I think I've just had time to get used to it." He growled, finally moving the pillow and clutching it to his chest. "Look, I got everything that happened all written down. If you want, you can read through it. Because it is a pretty long story."

"Fine." He ground out, dropping the pillow back on the bed. "But I'm still pissed off at you for doing this. You should know better by now."

"Yeah. I know." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. He just glared at her, though she ignored it. "Now come on, let's go eat before the pizza gets cold and the soda gets warm." She led him out of the room, only for them to pause when they opened the door. 

Scout was standing on the table, one large slice of pizza hanging out of her mouth as she stared, frozen, back at them. Stacy sighed. "At least use a plate." She went over and handed the Puppet the small paper plate. She let the slice drop onto it, the tip mashed beyond belief and sauce dripping out of her mouth.

Will gave the sight a disgusted look(not that Stacy could blame him). He didn't say anything about it, however, and instead went to the computer and and sat down at it. He quickly clicked over to the proper document and scrolled up to the top. "Alright Stace, let's see what happened to you..."

' _I guess her teeth are pretty different..._ ' Meanwhile, Stacy was cutting Scout's pizza up, if only to keep her from making a mess of herself. ' _And she doesn't have a lot of them. It's probably good that she's watching me do this so she can know how..._ ' "Okay, this should be good for you to eat. Please try not to make a mess of my couch. It takes forever to get it clean..."

"Yeah yeah." Scout immediately shoved two pieces into her mouth and started her open-mouthed "chewing", reminding Stacy more than a little of the Cookie Monster. To keep from laughing, she plated up another slice and poured a glass of soda for Will, who was already deep into what her and Scout had written.

"Don't strain yourself, babe." She placed the plate and cup beside him. 

"Mmm..." He ignored her, but did pick up the pizza and started eating it. Seeing that that was all she was going to get out of him, Stacy turned back to the table, only to see Scout had gone back to her pillow cave, taking her pizza with her. With a sigh she sat at the table, not bothering to get herself a slice.

' _This is wrong. We should all be sitting here. They should like each other why don't they like each other? Did I do something wrong?_ ' She shook her head, running her hands through her hair. ' _It's fine it'll be fine. They just need time. It's not you it's not youit'snotyouit'snOTYOU_ ' She rubbed at her eyes and suppressed a sigh. ' _I need more pills._ '

She stood and went over to the counter, grabbing the bottle out of the medicine cabinet. She dumped the dose in her hand and dry swallowed, immediately regretting her decision as she choked on the pills. ' _That never works, idiot!_ ' She scolded herself as she got a bottle of water and chugged from it.

' _This day is a disaster. Will's mad at me. Scout's probably mad at me._ ' Stacy sighed, dropping back into her chair and letting her head drop onto the table. ' _Fuck my life with a cactus._ '

' _Fuckfuckfuckfuck! Scout do you even know what you've done to us?!_ ' A Hand Puppet with peachy skin and dark blue pigtails raced though the halls. Close behind her was something that had once been a friend, but was now just another tool of her cruel masters.

Luckily, she had been through this particular section of the warehouse enough that she had long since memorized the route. Jump to the shelf, ceiling lamp, top of the door. Drop down and crawl through and into the bucket that hid the entrance to their hiding hole. Behind her she could hear flapping wings as her pursuer flew through the doorway, thankfully too late to spot where she'd gone. Still, she waited for a moment in the entrance to be sure.

"The eldest returns with news of outside. And, perhaps, of how much longer we must hide?" The Puppet turned at the voice, finding two other Hand Puppets crawling out of the tunnel. The one that had spoken had yellow skin and orange hair, while the other had blue skin and red hair. 

"Forever, Stitch! We've gotta hide forever because Scout had to be selfish!" The other one spat out. She crossed her arms and glared at the dirty floor, looking like she could kick something if she only had the legs for it.

"Would you both be quiet! Hibird's outside! If he finds us, we're all dead!" The Puppet that had just entered hissed at the other two. She grabbed their arms and started pulling them deeper into the hole. "Come on! I actually do have news, and Bonzai should hear it too."

Together the three Puppets Jumped their way through the tiny tunnel, going a secret way known only to the five of them. Eventually, they came to a small, boarded up room that any human would find claustrophobic. What was once an old storage closet now served as a hidden base for the latest of Daisy's "children". As far as they could tell, no other Puppets knew of the place, and the entrance was too small for them to get into either way. Inside was one other Hand Puppet, one with orange skin and green hair.

"Girls!" He exclaimed, dropping down from the shelf he was on. "I thought you were all dead! I was just preparing my awesome plan to go avenge you!" He threw a few fake punches, which the first Puppet glared at, catching his cloth fists.

"Bonzai, you would do no such thing!" She insisted. "If something happens to us, you're supposed to stay in here until Daisy makes more!"

"Calm down, Canon. I could totally take them if I wanted to." He huffed, pulling away.

"No, you can't! That's why we're in here!" Canon told him. "We have to stay hidden until Mortimer calls for us, you know that!"

"Do not fight, siblings dear. Hibird or another could be close and hear." Stitch told them. "Canon has news of what has happened. Tell us, has our youngest sister met her end?"

There was a pause as the blue haired Puppet looked around. "No. As far as I could find out, Scout's still alive." There was a collective sigh of relief from the other three, though it didn't last long as Canon continued. "But, she managed to get herself and her defective Host outside somehow. Riley's furious, madder than I've ever seen her. Even Rosco's hiding from her."

"The mutt? He never hides from anything." The red-headed Puppet said. "Much less the mad 'doctor'."

"Well, he is this time, Bit. But that's not the worst of it." She took a deep breath, preparing herself to say the next thing. "Mortimer's completely calm about this."

"Mr. Handee himself has had no reaction? Would this not be an event to spur even him to action?" Stitch asked, concerned. 

"You'd think, but no. Riley's madder than he is. He just sort of said... 'Yeah okay.' and left it at that." Canon suppressed a shudder. "I'm worried that he planned this somehow. And what his plans could mean for Scout. And the rest of us."

"I'm just mad that she found a way outside and didn't tell us." Bonzai said. "She knows I want to see the ocean and climb some rocks."

"Yeah! How could she leave us here like that?!" Bit asked angrily. "She knows we all want to see what's really out there!"

"Quiet, the both of you! We've no idea of what Scout really tried to do. If it was truly Mortimer's plan, she would have had no choice in when she ran." Stitch scolded, shoving herself between them. The other two looked away, in shame, though Bit kept her glare.

"And we still don't even know if it is a plan." Canon said. "For all we know, she got lucky, found a hole in the wall, and crawled out." She paused, checking to make sure the others were paying attention. "The best we can hope for at this point is that she doesn't come back, and that we can stay hidden until we find out what's really going on here."

"What?!" Her siblings looked shocked.

"Why should we hope for that?!" Bit questioned. "I want her to come home, and tell us about everything she saw out there!"

"Because if she does come back, Riley _will_ to tear her apart to find out why she can't control her Hosts." Canon told them, struggling to keep her cool. "She'll destroy her so much, there'll be nothing left, and then do the same to the rest of us. She was on her last one anyways, and she failed harder than anyone else ever has. She not only couldn't control her Host, she managed to Wake it up."

A shocked silence was all the reply she got from that, her younger siblings just staring at her.

"Isn't that supposed to be impossible?" Bonzai asked finally, uncharacteristically quiet. "The spell Mortimer does... it's meant to be permanent."

"I don't know." Canon admitted. "Something might have gone wrong with the spell, or something went wrong with Scout. It doesn't matter, Riley intends to find out either way." Her gaze hardened. "Which is why all of us have to stay hidden. Find Daisy and cry, if we have to. Because without Scout, we're the next best thing Riley has to a way to figure out the answer."

She watched her younger siblings exchange fearful looks, even Bonzai looking afraid. ' _Good._ ' She thought to herself. ' _Whatever keeps them safe. Even if we have to go find Daisy again, I won't let anyone else get hurt because of this._

 _I can't._ '


	6. Strain

Will sat back from the screen, stretching. ' _I wouldn't believe any of this if not for already seeing Scout._ ' He scrolled back up to the top of the doc, clicking the save icon. ' _Even then, it doesn't really seem real._ '

Speaking of the Puppet, Will looked over to the couch. From underneath it, he could make out two large, yellow eyes. They made eye contact and with a blink they disappeared. ' _She's kind of like a cat, if said cat was evil and wanted to eat my soul._ '

Stacy, on the other hand, had her head lying limp on the table, a single slice of pizza sitting next to her. It looked barely touched, which worried him a little. Normally he couldn't keep her off the pizza. With a sigh, Will stood and moved to sit across from her.

"So." He waited until she'd shifted her to stare up at him with a single eye. "Evil voodoo Puppets."

"Yep." She deadpanned.

"Mind-raping, soul-eating, evil voodoo Puppets."

"Yep."

"And you decided to bring one home. Of your own free will."

"Why do you doubt me?" Stacy asked, exhausted, as she finally sat up all the way. I know what I'm doing. Mostly."

"I just want to know why you don't seem to think that thing under the couch _isn't_ controlling you somehow." He told her. "Stacy, I trust you, I really do. But you said it yourself it was supposed to _mind control_ you. How do you know it still can't?!"

"Uh, because if she was we'd still be in the HQ, and you'd be a widower." Stacy said.

"Not married yet. I'd just be single." He didn't even crack a smile, and the serious tone made the woman wilt. "I'm being serious here, Stace. How do you know for sure?"

Stacy didn't answer, instead turning slightly to stare at the wall. "I don't know." She admitted quietly. "I just... I don't think she can do that anymore. I wasn't joking when I said we'd still be there if she could."

Will just sighed. Personally, he didn't trust the sock puppet an ounce. But, he did trust his girlfriend beyond that, so he decided to trust her with this. ' _God, I just hope she knows what she's talking about._ '

Outwardly, however, he said "Fine, then I'm gonna trust you on that. But if she hurts anyone at all, she's getting the Hammer."

"William!" Stacy scolded, but he double downed.

"I mean it Stace! I am not going through this bullshit again! She gets the Hammer, and we move on with our lives." Will told her. "I know she's your friend, but I refuse to let her put anyone in danger."

Stacy opened her mouth to argue, then scowled and crossed her arms. Even if she didn't like it. she had to admit he had a point. Scout could very well be lying about anything and everything. Just because she was friendly, didn't mean she wasn't an evil voodoo Puppet. 

"Fine." She finally ground out, fixing him with her best Death Glare. "But for now she's harmless, so you'd better treat her nice."

"I'll be civil." He promised, and her expression softened just a bit.

"Good." And that was probably the best she was going to get out of him. She watched as he opened the pizza box, only to stare in surprise.

"Did you seriously eat almost all of the pizza?!" He asked, as he looked between her and the mostly empty box. Stacy just shrugged.

"Scout really likes pizza, apparently." She explained, glancing towards the couch. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she thought through the possible effects of this. "Like, really likes it. A lot."

Will just stared in disbelief before dropping the lid of the box. "Right. I'm going home now." He stood up, then paused to point at her. "Think about what I've said tonight, Stacy. Really think on it. Hard."

"Okay okay! Sheesh, you sound like Mary." Will snorted, grabbing the bottle of Mountain Dew.

"And I'm taking this back until you can keep evil toys out of your house." He told her, adopting a mock snooty expression. "Gamer Juice is a privilege, not a right."

"Eh, that's fair." Stacy shrugged. "I'll see ya later Will. Maybeeeeeee Friday?" She perked slightly, and the man sighed.

"Yeah sure, I could sell myself to the group for another six hours. Are we doing it here?"

"Yep!" Stacy grinned standing herself and following him to the door. "And maybe we could, y'know, let someone else play?" She glanced towards the couch again, and Will sighed.

"If they try and kill her, I am not helping you." Will told her. She deflated somewhat, and he sighed again. "I'll see you on Friday. Goodnight, Stace."

"G'night." Stacy watched him leave, then slowly closed the door behind him. Now out of his sight, she went to lean against the door, only to hear a munching from the table. Looking over, she spotted Scout stealing the pepperoni off of the last two slices of pizza.

"Really?" She asked, walking over to the table as Scout stacked the little circles of meat up.

"What? Not like you were eating it." Stacy watched as she shoved the whole stack straight down her throat. The sight brought up questions about her "biology" that, quite frankly, the Host didn't want to think about. "What was he saying about people wanting to kill me?"

"Nothing. Nobody's gonna kill you." Stacy went to a drawer and pulled out a Ziploc bag. She put the last two pizza slices into it before Scout could molest them anymore. "They might freak out, though."

Scout didn't stop her suspicious stare. "And, uh, who is "they"?" She watched her Host put the bag in the fridge, getting annoyed at being ignored. "C'mon Stace, give me some help here."

" _They_ are the DnD group Will and I are a part of." Stacy couldn't keep the smile off of her face. "They're good people, so I think you'll like them."

"What's DnD?" The Puppet asked, and Stacy's smile wider to an almost frightening degree

"You'll love it." Was all she said. "It's something you've got to experience yourself, but it's a a lot of fun."

"Yeah..." She looked away, though Stacy didn't take much notice. Instead the Host threw away the pizza box and put the plates in the sink, intending to wash them the next day. When she turned back to the table, Scout was gone again. A quick glance around showed her back on the couch, messing with the remote.

' _Ah, okay then..._ ' Stacy considered joining her, then thought better of it. She had something to do first.

Casually, she entered her bedroom, making sure to shut the door behind her. She then went into the bathroom, closing and locking the door. She carefully took off her tank top, dropping it on top of the closed toilet lid. Then, with no small amount of pain, she managed to get her bra off. Taking as deep a breath as she could, she turned to look at herself in the mirror.

There, in a jagged line across the bottom of her ribs, was a crudely stitched wound, one whose stitches pulled every time she took too deep a breath. Similar, smaller wounds were scattered almost haphazardly across her torso. It looked for all the world like Melinda's stuffed animals had after Stacy used them to "play surgeon".

Granted when she'd done that it was a deliberate attempt at destroying them. But Riley was supposed to be a scientist, a doctor even! So seeing such jagged cuts across her torso on her body was a whole level of disturbing Stacy found herself unable to describe.

She would've preferred an autopsy scar, if she was being honest.

With a sigh she pulled her first aid kit out from under the sink, pulling out the antiseptic and gauze. With as much care as she could she cleaned around the wounds and applied the medicine, then wrapped her whole torso in gauze. She then forced the bra back on, not wanting the pain of her breasts slapping against the wounds. She put on a clean shirt and new pants, then changed the bandage around her arm. All of that done with, she took a deep breath before heading back out into the main part of her apartment.

Scout was sitting on the couch, taring at the TV. She sat next to her, throwing the remaining pillow to the floor as she got comfortable. " _The Last Kids on Earth_? I hear that's a good one." She observed, trying to make some sort of conversation.

"Yeah, it's pretty funny." Scout said, not looking away from the screen. "Jack keeps saying weird things though. I don't understand him."

"He's making video game references." Stacy told her, only to get a confused look in return.

"None of what he's been saying sounds a thing like Skyrim." Scout said, and Stacy snorted.

"There's more games than just Skyrim. I actually have a lot of them on my computer. I'll show you later, okay?"

"Mm." Stacy felt her face fall a little at the lack of an answer. She focused on the screen herself, trying not to feel too bad about being ignored.

' _Maybe I'm pushing her too far? Does she hate me now? I hope she doesn't, I like her I want her to be happy._ ' She gripped the edge of her shirt, then quickly relaxed her hands. ' _It's fine it's fine. Maybe she's just thinking about stuff too. Like maybe what happened Back There, or why my body is covered in stitches..._ ' Stacy resisted the urge to hit her head against the wall. ' _STOP THINKING ABOUT IT! It's! Fine! It'sfineit'sfineit'sfine_ '

"Hey!" Stacy blinked, knocked out of her spiraling thoughts. She looked down to see Scout staring up at her, an almost worried look on her face. "You okay there Ginormica?" Stacy felt her heart fall just a little at the nickname.

' _I thought we were past that now..._ ' "I'm fine. Just... tired, I guess. Not really over what happened a few days ago." She shrugged, not really meeting the Puppet's eyes. "Probably just need to sleep a bit more. Maybe take my meds again..."

"Because of the brain damage thing?" Scout asked, and the Host snorted. 

"Yeah. Because of the brain damage..." She stood up, stumbling slightly when Scout suddenly appeared on top of her head, and made her way into the kitchen. She pulled her pill bottle out and poured out the dose in her hand, then grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge. She took her pills, far too aware of Scout watching her. When she put the bottle back,she made sure it was high enough the Puppet would have no hope of getting to it without help.

That done, she started towards the bedroom, pretty much done with the whole day. She was ready for sleep, and wanted to be up early enough to meet Carol before anyone else got to the office. Scout seemed to disagree, though, when she noticed they weren't heading back to the couch.

"Woah, hey! What about the show?" She slapped a hand against Stacy's head, and the Host winced. She reached up and grabbed the Puppet off of her head, hoping to head off any more violence.

"Sorry Scout, but I'm kinda really exhausted, so I'm going to bed now. You can keep watching if you want to, though." She went to drop the Puppet on the couch, but instead Scout clung to her arm.

"No! We're watching this together! You owe me!" She said, trying to pull her Host onto the couch. Stacy just sighed and easily pulled out of her grip.

"I really don't." She told the Puppet, making sure the remote was in her reach. "Just keep the sound down, so the neighbors don't hear, okay?"

"Uh no! Not okay!" She protested, making another grab for her hand. The Host easily dodged the attempt, moving back just far enough to be out of reach.

"Yeah, well, it's gonna have to be okay." Stacy told her. "I'm going to bed. I'll leave the door open if you need me. Goodnight." She turned to leave, only to be almost tackled as Scout suddenly landed on her head. "Okay! That is incredibly annoying!"

"You are not going to bed!" Scout yelled, pulling on her hair. "You're going to watch TV with me! Sit! On! The! Couch!" She tugged with each word, and it was starting to get painful. Stacy decided to try a new route and yanked the Puppet off her head, flinging her onto the couch. She then sprinted into her bedroom and dived onto the bed with a pained gasp, covering herself with the quilt. She rolled so she was facing the wall and waited.

Seconds later she heard a quiet thumps, like fabric hitting her carpet. She stayed perfectly still, keeping her breathing slow as Scout got on the bed. She felt the Puppet push against her back, followed by furious muttering.

"Get up! Get up you fucking giant! Move!" A slightly more forceful shove, before all pressure stopped. Stacy didn't dare turn around as the small weight left her bed. A moment later the sound from the TV started up again, louder than before. Stacy gave a quiet sigh and rolled onto her back.

' _Scout come on..._ ' She stared up at the ceiling, feeling tears prick at her eyes. ' _I know it's hard. It is for me too._ ' She covered her face with a pillow, hoping to muffle any sounds. She was a loud crier, and if she started now then Scout would know she wasn't asleep.

' _Why's she so clingy now? She wasn't back at Sammy's place. Is it because of Will?_ ' Stacy hoped not. She wanted them to get along. Will would make a great friend for Scout once he got over himself. ' _Did she hear what he said about the Hammer? Is that what caused this? I hope not..._ '

She sighed quietly, glancing over at the door from under the pillow. She'd left the light in the main part on, as she always did, and the warm yellow coming in her room was comforting and familiar. She let out a quiet sigh as she settled in, pressing the pillow down harder on her own face.

' _Maybe I'll show her how to play Kirby tomorrow. That's a nice easy game, and it'll give her something to do while I talk to Carol. She doesn't need to be a part of that. Not really..._ ' A quiet huff as she thought over the cover story she'd crafted, making mental edits to put in the next morning. ' _I'll just turn in the fake, and she can use that for the Halfway to Halloween paper. And then hopefully she won't send anyone there on Halloween. The last thing any of my coworkers need is to end up in that assholes claws..._ '

Stacy nodded to herself, closing her eyes. She had a plan for Carol, but not for Scout. But, she could always think one up tomorrow. For now, she would sleep, and hope Scout would be fine until morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter on Monday, just like I said! And in this one, looks like Stacy's kept a few secrets of her own, and dangerous ones too. We also see what affection and actual friendship is starting to do to Scout. It’s different from everything she’s ever known, and she likes it and wants it all to herself.


	7. Article Delivery

When Stacy woke up next, it was to Scout once again sleeping on her chest. With some maneuvering she managed to get up without waking the Puppet, leaving her laying in the middle of the bed. She then went in to the bathroom, where she changed her bandages and got ready for the day. By the time she came back out, Scout had woken up herself and moved back to the living room.

Feeling bad about the night before, Stacy went to the kitchen and got out some ingredients. Bread was set on the counter. A pan went on the stove. Milk, eggs, and a little bit of cinnamon were mixed into a bowl. She soaked the bread in the mixture, then put it in the pan. Quickly, the smell of french toast filled the apartment, and she heard the TV pause. Seconds later Scout was on the counter, looking at the pan from behind the still mostly full loaf of bread.

"What's that?" She asked, leaning as close as she dared. She could feel the heat coming from the stove, and was wary of getting closer. Stacy grinned, checking the bottom of the bread.

"French toast. It's a breakfast food, commonly eaten with peanut butter and maple syrup. And it's delicious!" She flipped it, then set the spatula down to grab a couple of plates from the cupboard. "How much do you think you'll eat? This is all we'll be getting until lunch."

If Scout could salivate, she would be drooling all over the counter. "Twenty!" She told her Host seriously. Stacy paused, looking her up and down.

"How about two." She said. "They're kinda big and you're kinda... not."

"Fiiiiiine." The Puppet groaned, watching as she placed two pieces of toast on one plate, and the last piece on the other. She put them on the table, then got out the peanut butter and syrup while Scout Jumped to her plate.

Stacy showed her how to spread the peanut butter, which Scout copied with some difficulty. The second piece looked better than the first, but it still wasn't as good as Stacy's. The knife was too big and unwieldy for the Puppet to use properly, though her pride kept her from asking her Host for help.

Though her Host did have to help with the syrup, the bottle being far too heavy for her to lift by herself. Though, once she saw how liquid it was, she didn't let Stacy put much on either piece, with the second one getting absolutely none on it.

She had to use two forks to keep her hands clean, but Scout found herself loving the french toast. She wasn't entirely sure what made it different from regular toast, but it was the tastiest thing she'd eaten so far. Even the one with the syrup wasn't so bad, even though she could feel it soaking into her fabric as she ate it. 

"This is fucking good!" She told Stacy around a mouthful of tasty bread. The Host just grinned, sticking another small bite in her own mouth. 

"Glad you like it. It's one of my favorite breakfast foods." She told her, poking at her slice with her fork. Scout thought she looked a bit distracted, but ignored it to eat her own toast. By the time she'd finished her two slices, Stacy hadn't even gotten through half of hers. When she saw Scout staring at it, she willingly gave it up to the Puppet, taking the empty plate to the sink.

"So, I gotta go take the article to Carol today." The Host said as she washed Scout's plate. "But I'm gonna give her the fake one I wrote up yesterday. It should be enough to keep people out of that place, without drawing too much attention to it."

"Sounds good. When do we leave?" Scout asked, pushing the last plate over towards Stacy, who hesitated before picking it up.

"I mean, if you want to stay here, you can." She told her quietly, turning and putting the plate in the sink. "You don't have to go just because I do."

Scout frowned. "Yeah, but I want to come." She insisted, finding it odd. Just a couple days ago Stacy seemed upset that she wouldn't go with to wash some rugs, but now she wanted to be alone. It was just confusing to the Hand Puppet.

"If that's what you want to do..." Stacy didn't sound sure, and it was starting to annoy the Puppet with how inconsistent she was being. 

"Yeah, it's what I want to fucking do." She said angrily, and felt a little smug at the wince Stacy gave in response. Other than that, the Host ignored the outburst and finished washing the dishes, only to pause when she picked up a fork. She glanced between the Puppet and utensil, frowning, and Scout felt her stuffing go cold.

' _Oh shit! She's gonna stab me!_ ' The Puppet panicked, looking for a hiding place. But, other than deepening her frown, Stacy did nothing and just put the fork to dry with the rest of the dishes. She then drained the sink, drying her hands, and heading to the living room. 

As she passed the table, she picked Scout up, almost cradling her as she grabbed something off of the TV table. She settled on to the couch, placing the Puppet in her lap and leaning back.

"What are you doing?" She asked while the Host turned on the TV and changed the channel. It looked similar to Netflix, but there was just one row of pictures, rather than several. She watched as Stacy did something with the large, square-ish remote in her hands.

"I'm making you a profile on my Switch so you can play games." She told the Puppets, choosing a little pink round thing for an icon. "And then I'm gonna teach you how to play. We'll start with something simple, like Kirby."

"Kirby?" That wasn't something Scout had ever heard of before. But she didn't have much time to think it over as soon Stacy had taken the controller apart and handed her the blue half. She was then given a quick rundown of how to work it, and and told to select the first game on the list.

They watched the cut-scene, then got right into the game. Scout was playing the pink thing, who was apparently supposed to be Kirby. Stacy was playing... something else. It changed a lot and Scout couldn't really keep up. Still, with the Host guiding her they managed to get through the first few levels without dying. The Puppet was actually getting into it when Stacy suddenly quit the game, leaving her alone.

"Hey!" Scout yelled as she stood and left the room. "Where are you going?"

"I gotta go get dressed, it's almost time to go." Stacy told her. "Don't worry, we can bring the Switch and you can play it while I talk to Carol."

"But-" Scout went unheard as Stacy went into her bedroom, leaving the Puppet alone with the game. She let out a small growl, then picked up her controller again. When Stacy came back out, dressed up in nice jeans and a light yellow collared shirt, it was to Scout beating up Wispy with Fire Kirby and three Burning Leos. She watched and, when the boss fight was finished, clicked the Switch into sleep mode.

"Hey! I was still playing!" Scout protested, but Stacy ignored her and took the switch out of it's stand. She took apart the remote, snapping the colored parts onto the small screen.

"I know." She said, slipping it into her backpack. "That's why it's going with us, so you can _keep_ playing."

Scout stared, looking between Stacy and the TV. "... We can do that?!"

Stacy just sighed, having to fight off a small smile of amusement. "Yeah. We can do that." She finished packing up her stuff and pulled on her hoodie, then held out her open bag to the Puppet. "Want me to carry you, or do you wanna ride in the bag?"

"Like I would ever ride in that thing." Scout scoffed, and the Host hid a smile at that. She slung her bag onto her back and picked up the Puppet, who then climbed up her arm to hide in her hood. 

' _Adorable..._ ' Stacy thought as she felt Scout settle in to the lowered hood. Hopefully she'd be out of view of any passerby, at least until Stacy got to the truck. If not, they could always go with the toy story again, it worked last time.

The Host made her way out of the apartment, locking up as she went. She didn't meet anyone on the way, and they made it to the truck without incident. Stacy climbed inside, putting her bag on the floorboard in front of the passenger seat. She then dug Scout out of her hood and dropped her in said seat. While she considered if it was worth it to make her buckle up, the Puppet went straight for the bag, prompting Stacy to grab her by the back of her "shirt".

"You can't play the Switch while the car's moving, I don't want to find out if you can get carsick. You can play when we get to the college." Stacy told her, pulling her against the back of the seat. 

"I won't get car sick!" Not that Scout knew what that was, of course. But it had the word sick, and she wasn't sick. She wasn't even sure she could get sick, for that matter.

"Not that you know of." The Host countered, pulling out from the parking lot. "And, frankly, I don't really want to find that out right now."

Scout pouted, but let it go, instead watching out the window as they drove the short distance to Stacy's college. It was a nice looking building, different to what the apartment buildings were like. It was made of red brick, with a green slanted roof, and was much wider and even a bit taller than Stacy or Sammy's apartment buildings.

Stacy parked in the mostly empty lot, then grabbed her bag and pulled the Switch out of it, which she handed to the Puppet. She then made sure the windows were rolled down just enough to let some fresh air in and keep the cab from being too hot.

"Okay, so I'm going to go talk to Carol about the article. You stay here and play Kirby. I'll be back soon, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." Scout answered, already distracted with loading the game back up. Stacy just smiled a little and got out of the truck. She locked both doors, then pocketed the keys and made her way into the building.

Being close to the end of Spring Break, there were more people around than she would've liked. But, it made sense that the students were starting to come back. It was Thursday, after all, and classes started up next week.

' _Ah geez, what am I gonna do with Scout? She can't come to class with me, it'd be a disaster! Either the others would freak out, or she would._ ' She clutched the strap of her bag tighter as she approached the new office. ' _Maybe she can stay with Will sometimes? Or I could get her a cellphone? I don't know if I can let her be alone at the house without a way to contact me. What if she turns the stove on and hurts herself? Or gets stuck somewhere?_ '

She paused and pulled a small note book and pen out of her bag, on which was already a short list. She quickly scribbled _cellphone/flip phone_ at the bottom, then put it back. She was already planning a trip to Walmart when she was done here, so she could pick one up during that.

She entered the office, nodding to Adam as she passed his desk. To her relief, he seemed like the only one there other than Carol, which would make talking to her boss a lot easier. 

Carol herself was currently hunched over two separate laptops, typing furiously with one hand on each. Stacy wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but somehow she managed to keep her focus equal between them.

Truly, she was a wonder of an editor, and it almost made Stacy sad she'd have to disrupt her.

"Boss!" Didn't stop her from shouting her name and smacking the desk, though. And, to her credit, Carol didn't even flinch as she kept typing. only briefly glancing up at the reporter.

"Are you finally here with your article?" She spoke quickly, but was obviously very annoyed. Stacy just gave her the most shit eating grin she could as she dropped the USB on the desk.

"Sure have!" And here it was, moment of truth. Time to see just how good at lying she really was. "It was pretty boring, actually. Most interesting thing was the big hole in the floor from the fire way back when." She shrugged nonchalantly. "Send me somewhere cool next time, mkay?" ' _Nailed it._ '

Carol glanced from USB to Host, brow furrowing. "And the missing homeless people? Those were supposed to be a big draw in the article."

"Probably fell down the hole or something. I don't know, it was pretty dangerous in there so I couldn't get too far in." She leaned against the desk, looking at a framed issue of their paper on the wall. 

"Hmm..." It was clear Carol wasn't fully buying the lie, and Stacy was glad she'd put on extra deodorant. "Did you at least make it sound interesting enough? There's no time for you to find somewhere better."

"Do you really doubt me on that, Boss?" She asked. "And here I thought you knew me better than that."

"Ugh, fine. I'll put your story in." The editor sighed, but couldn't keep a small smile off her face. "You gonna stick around for a while?"

"Nope! I got some shopping to do." Stacy informed her. "I'll see ya on Monday, though." She gave a wave as she turned and left. As she passed Adam's desk she tipped over the cup holding his pencils, giving a quiet cackle when he jumped at the clatter.

As she walked back the way she came, she reached up to grab at her bag strap with her left hand, only to pause as she realized it had gone numb. She rubbed it vigorously with her other hand, wincing when the pins and needles started. ' _Ugh! Is my hoodie too tight or something?_ ' She stretched the cuff of her sleeve a little bit, then shoved her hands in her pockets as she finally left the building.

She blinked as she came out into the sun, making her way across the lot to her truck, where she spotted a cat on the hood. As she approached it ran off, and a quick glance in the window showed Scout staring after the cat with her tongue sticking out.

Biting back a laugh at the frankly adorable sight, she climbed into the drivers seat, almost losing it when Scout turned towards her, tongue still out. She managed to keep her composure, but only barely, and hoped the Puppet hadn't noticed.

"So are we going home now?" She asked, finally putting her tongue back where it belonged. Stacy shook her head, starting the truck.

"Nope, gotta go to Walmart now." She told her "I've got some stuff to pick up. And put the Switch down, I need to start driving."

"No. I'm not carsick." Scout told her, already turning back to the screen. The Host frowned, but didn't say anything more. If she wanted to learn this the hard way, then she could.

Sure enough, not five minutes she was yanking the Switch out of Scout's hands, dropping it into her lap as the tell tale gagging sounds started. She pulled over with a sigh. Once parked she grabbed a roll of paper towels and a half used water bottle from the floor board, ready to start the clean up process.

At least her seats were easy to clean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, this one took forever to write. Not because it was hard to do, but I think I burnt myself out a little bit.
> 
> So! For anyone who doesn't already know, chapters will now be uploaded every two weeks. So two(2) weeks from now, on Monday, chapter 8 should go up!
> 
> As for this chapter, it's more of a transitional chapter than anything. Although there is a few important details in here. Maybe you can notice, maybe it'll be more obvious later.


	8. A Trip to Wal Mart

The rest of the drive was spent with Scout in Stacy's lap, a worryingly dry pile of half-chewed bread in the passenger seat. The only smell was that of peanut butter, but Stacy had still rolled down the windows to help air things out.

As she parked in front of the Wal Mart, Scout let out a pained groan, rolling on to her stomach. "Are we home yet?"

"Not yet. I have some shopping to do first." A glance to the mess in the passenger seat, and she picked the Puppet up. "And you're coming with."

"Ugh, fine. I don't want to be in here anyways." Scout told her, flopping over in Stacy's arms. Where they were going was undoubtedly full of people, and that made her feel sick again. But she was sure she could play dead well enough for however long it took, .

Stacy grabbed her bag, then got out of the truck and started towards the large store. Scout took the chance to look around, seeing several people and families. Some had large metal carts and some had gray bags, walking either towards or away from the store. Some were by parked cars, putting the bags into them. She thought back, trying to remember what she'd seen about Wal Marts on TV, but couldn't think of anything. 

' _Maybe they're something new?_ ' She decided as they entered the building, Stacy nodding to someone standing there in a blue vest. She grabbed a cart, placing Scout into the smaller section close to the handle. As she made her way through the shelves, Scout stared in wonder at all of the clean, brightly colored things around. When they got to where they were going, she actually recognized some of them as being in Stacy's kitchen.

"Why are we in this weird kitchen? And where's the stove?" She asked as Stacy searched through the items. Occasionally, she'd pick one up to look closer, but would inevitably put it back again.

"It's a place to buy stuff for your kitchen." Her Host explained. "And I'm just checking for something. If it's not here, I'll have to ask Mason about it tomorrow night."

"Ask who about what?" Now the Puppet was confused. 

"Mason. He's one of my friends, and him and Lisa will be at my apartment tomorrow night for DnD." Stacy told her. "I haven't told them about you yet, but if you want to meet them tomorrow will be the time."

"Oh..." Scout sunk down a little, looking at anything but Stacy. ' _More friends? Ugh, how many people does one Host need? I know she said she had people out here, but I didn't think there would be so many..._ ' She shook her head, grabbing the metal edge of the cart when Stacy pushed it around the corner, where hundreds of thick cups with handles were. The Host gestured to the display when she saw Scout looking at it.

"Go ahead and choose one. I'll buy it for you." She told the Puppet, who hauled herself up to get a better look. There were so many different kinds of mugs, some with pictures and some with words on them, and in all sorts of different colors. Stacy was looking at her phone, so Scout took the chance to Jump to the shelf and get a closer look.

She zeroed in on a black one with white lettering, one of which she couldn't recognize. But it was shiny and very smooth, and she found herself rubbing her hands over the rim over and over again. 

"Oh, do you want the cat mug?" Stacy had looked up from her phone. Scout didn't know what a cat was, but she nodded.

"Yeah! It's a cool color." The Puppet told her, grabbing the handle and trying to lift it. Despite it's size, it was heavier than she expected, and her Host had to grab it to keep it from falling. She placed it in the bottom of the cart while Scout jumped back into her place, and Stacy started back down the aisle.

As they turned a corner, Stacy handed Scout her phone, a weird game on it. Stacy gave a short explanation on the game, which was just to clear out rows of the colored blocks. The Puppet settled in to do so while Stacy kept going through the store. She would look up whenever something was put into the cart, but other than that had no real interest in what Stacy was doing.

Stacy wandered through the store in an apparently aimless way. Eventually, the ended up at a counter with another Host behind it, and Stacy piled all the things up on to a conveyor belt. A long series of beeps later, and Stacy was putting gray bags into the cart. She thanked the other Host and pushed the cart out of the building, where the sun had vanished behind a thick cover of clouds.

Scout stared at the now deep gray sky as Stacy gathered up the bags, Jumping to rest on her head. She could feel a breeze as her Host walked, though it wasn't the kind that came from movement.

"Why'd the sky change? It's too early for night time." She asked, and Stacy glanced up, frowning as she took note of the darkening sky.

"Looks like it's going to rain." She observed. "This was the last errand, though, so it's fine." They made it to the truck and she dropped her groceries onto the floorboard of the passenger's side. She climbed into the driver's side and pulled Scout down into her lap.

"Rain?" The Puppet climbed up the door to press her face against the window. "Like, the water that falls from the sky?"

"Yep." The Host navigated out of the parking lot, pulling onto the main road. Scout glanced up at her, then looked back out the window. So far there wasn't any water, but even as she watched the sky got darker and darker. It was terrifying, watching it happen. 

By the time they'd made it back to the apartment, the sky was nearly black and the wind had started blowing hard enough the trees were bent. Not wanting to risk it, Stacy made a decision and grabbed Scout, gently shoved her into her hoodie pouch. She then zipped it closed, ignoring the Puppets loud protests. Now assured that Scout wouldn't blow away, she gathered up her bags and backpack, then sprinted to her building.

Once inside, she ignored Scout's struggling, even as the Puppet pushed painfully against the stitches hidden under her shirt. She made her way back to her apartment slipping inside after a brief struggle to get her key out of her backpack. Once the door had closed and she'd put her bags on the table, she finally let the Puppet go.

"Asshole!" She gasped out as she slipped out of the pouch, easily caught by her Host. She winced slightly, hoping it hadn't been too suffocating in the pocket.

"Well, sorry. But I was out of hands, and I wasn't about to let you blow away." Stacy told her, putting her on the table. She pulled one of the bags over and emptied it out, putting the groceries on the table. She then went over to the sink and grabbed a can out from underneath before grabbing the roll of paper towels. "I'm gonna go clean out my truck. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"But-" Stacy ignored her as she closed the door, leaning heavily against it wincing in pain. With a sigh, she pulled her hood up and went out to her truck, opening the passenger side door. She used the paper towels to scoop the mess into the bag, then sprayed the scrubbing bubbles on it and cleaned up whatever remained. That done she tied up the bag, dropping it into the trash before heading back inside.

In the apartment, Scout had been going through the stuff she'd bought, and was currently staring at a box of fruit loops. When Stacy returned, she just watched as the Puppet shook the box, holding it upside down. Every few seconds, she would check to see if anything had come out, only to go back to shaking the box with renewed vigor.

Stacy ignored this and moved to put away the other groceries, listening as she heard cardboard start to tear. Turning, she saw the Puppet ripping the box apart, only to find the loops trapped in a plastic bag. She stared, dumbfounded, and Stacy had to turn around to hide her laughter. She quickly finished putting away the food and then grabbed a small bowl and a pair of scissors.

When she approached, she took note of how Scout drew back a little, eyes on the scissors. But Stacy ignored it and just grabbed the bag, easily slicing it open and pouring some into the bowl. She handed it over, and watched her pick up a loop and eat it with a soft crunch. 

Instantly, her eyes widened from their usual glare and she almost face-planted into the bowl to get at the colorful sugar loops. Her Host watched, slightly disturbed and wondering if she should hide the sugar. Instead she closed up the bag with a clip and stuck it in the top cupboard while Scout was distracted.

That done, and everything else put up, Stacy grabbed the box that held a small, simple cell phone in it. It had a touchscreen, but since Scout hadn't had any problems with her phone she figured it wouldn't be so bad. She plugged it in and, when it had gotten enough of a charge, loaded a tracfone card into it. She set herself and Will as contacts, taking a selfie to use as a picture for hers. That done, she set the phone aside to let it finish charging and put on some YouTube to block out the soft crunching of Scout's fruit loops.

When she'd finished her cereal, Stacy brought the phone over and sat down at the table. "Okay, so I bought you something while we were at Wal Mart."

"What is it?" She looked up from trying to lick the bowl, and Stacy handed over the phone. She looked it over, frowning. "It looks like your tiny TV."

"Cellphone." Stacy corrected. "And, this one is yours. I've already put in my number, and Will's, in case you need to call one of us."

She showed her how to swipe to turn on the screen and unlock it, and then directed her to the contacts screen. Scout blinked in surprise at the tiny picture of Stacy next to what must've been her name. Below that was another name, but with a grayed out silhouette next to it, that must've been Will's.

"You just have to tap the name, and then the little green phone symbol next to it to call someone." Scout did as directed, bringing up Stacy's contact and tapping the phone. She jumped, almost dropping the phone, when a loud ringing started.

Stacy pulled out her phone, and showed Scout how to answer or decline a call. The Puppet watched, and, when Stacy had declined the call, turned to her phone and started tapping at the different icons. Stacy watched her for a moment, then stood up and went over to the couch.

She thought about maybe getting lunch, but realized she wasn't really hungry. ' _I really should eat something._ ' She thought, even as she turned on the TV and flipped over to Disney+. ' _Supper, at least. I'll make something really good for me and Scout._ ' She flipped through some different shows, then settled on Toy Story. After a couple of minutes Scout joined her, once again entranced by the screen.

However, as the movie went on she found herself unable to really focus on it. Her attention kept drifting, or she'd stare blankly for several minutes, not really seeing what was on the screen. After missing a whole episode doing that, she took a glance at her phone, finding it to only be three in the afternoon. She sighed, then turned to Scout.

"Hey, wake me up if you get hungry. I'm going to go take a nap." She wobbled a little when she stood up, but managed to regain her balance fairly quickly. Even then she still felt a little light headed and unsteady, bracing against the wall as she walked.

"Okay." Was the response, the Puppets attention fully captured by the TV. Stacy gave a small smile, then went into her bedroom. She shot off a quick text to Will about Scout having a phone, including her number so he could put it in his contacts. She then laid down on her bed, pulling a blanket over herself as she was starting to feel a chill.

' _A nap should really help me out here. I'm probably just still tired from everything that happened at the warehouse. I'll be fine when I wake up._ ' She struggled to find a comfortable position, the stitches itching and pulling no matter what she tried. ' _I'll take a nap, and then make supper. It'll be fine. I'm fine. There's nothing wrong._ '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's chapter 8 done, and with it, something else is finished too. Secrets can only last so long until something goes wrong.
> 
> Also, Scout has a cellphone now. And if you think she won't take a ton of pictures when she figures out that camera function, you are mistaken.


	9. Accidents Happen but This Wasn't an Accident

Scout sat through the whole rest of the movie, and then two more with the same characters. By the time she'd finished the last one, the rain and wind had stopped, but it was still dark. A look outside showed the streetlamps on, and nobody around. The road was really shiny though, and Scout watched for a while before turning back to the dark apartment.

"Okay." She thumped the side of her head, blinking as her flashlight turned on. "It's late, so let's go to bed now." She hopped down from the couch, then Jumped her way to the bedroom. From the doorway, she could see the blanket covered lump that was her Host. She made her way to the bed, then Jumped up on to it. With in moments she had wormed her way under the covers and pressed up against Stacy, ready to sleep herself.

Five minutes later she was crawling out, feeling far too hot. "Geez..." It was burning under the sheets, and also a little bit damp. It was almost worrying, and made Scout remember some of the more... unpleasant aspects of Hosts.

"Hey. Hey, Stacy. I think something happened." She pushed against the woman's cheek, but drew back at the wetness she felt. She also felt far too warm, and her breath was coming out in short gasps.

"Stacy, this isn't funny. It's time to wake up now." Ignoring the grossness, she pushed harder. "Something's wrong! Stacy? Stacy!" She pushed harder, but the Host didn't react. It wasn't even like when she'd pretended to sleep last night, there was nothing. She was completely nonreactive. It was just like when the Hosts back in the studio were used up.

"Oh no..." She fell back as the realization struck. "No no no NO! _No!_ I'm not even doing anything! You shouldn't be like this! Wake up! Stacy!" She tried harder, beating her fabric fists against Stacy's face, but nothing worked. "Wake up! _Please!_ "

Her eyes burned, and she looked around the room. "What do I do?!" What do I..." Her gaze fell on Stacy's phone, sitting on the side table. She lunged for it and swiped, only to be met with a request for a security code. "No!" She threw it onto the floor and, with one last glance at Stacy, Jumped her way to the living-room, where she'd left the phone she'd been given. Stacy had told her there was one other number on there, she just hoped it worked.

()()()

Will was supposed to be sleeping, but instead was staring down at the mess of circuitry in front of him. Off to the side was fully mangled and blackened body of an almost cat-like toy, it's head sitting upside down in his lap. It had attempted to move once, and he'd tazed it until had caught fire. He was currently poking around in the skull cavity, when his phone rang. Without looking at it he braced it between his shoulder and cheek.

"You've reached the phone of Will Carson. Unless you're the government or a scammer in which case you're having a bad trip and none of this is real." He spoke in a monotone, not even looking away from his work.

"Will!" The voice of that weird Puppet crackled through the line, and Will hung up immediately.

"Ew." He muttered, though he couldn't even put the phone down before it started ringing again. He answered quickly. "Whatever you want, I'm sure Stacy's more equipped to get it to you."

"Something's wrong with Stacy!" She spoke quickly, likely scared he'd hang up on her again. "Sh-she won't wake up, and she's hot and-and wet and she can''t breathe and she _won't wake up-_!"

Will felt his heart stop as she rambled on, unable to follow her words anymore.

_"Will run! I found out what happened to Jerome! She's in here with me! Mom's-"_

Will hung up the phone, dumping the head in his lap on the floor and grabbing his shoes as he dialed 911. He was just getting into his car as they picked up.

"Hello, 911. What is your emergency?" The female voice on the other end sounded so calm it was a stark contrast against his panic. He swallowed dryly, trying to quickly organize his thoughts.

"It's my girlfriend, Stacy. There's something wrong. She's in pain, and I think she's running a high fever." He struggled to keep calm as he drove the short distance to her apartment. "She just called me, talking about it, but I think she fainted. I tried calling her back but she wouldn't answer."

"Okay sir. Can you tell us where she your girlfriend lives?" He could hear her typing away at a keyboard as he rattled off the address. He parked the car as she finished. "Okay sir, an ambulance will be there very soon."

"Thank you so much!" He said as he got out of the car and started towards the door. "Tell them I'll meet them here, since I just got here myself."

"Will do sir." She told him, and he disconnected the call before running up the stairs. He fit his key into the lock and opened up the door, shutting it behind him but leaving it unlocked for the paramedics. When he didn't spot Stacy in the living room, he rushed into the bedroom. She was laying there, still covered up in bed, and he was quick to uncover her. He pressed a hand to her forehead, hissing in sympathy at the heat coming off her.

"What the fuck did you do Stace?" He whispered, subtly glancing around for the Puppet. He couldn't see her, but that didn't mean much. She was small enough she could be under the bed, or even in the bed with Stacy and he'd never know it. Still, he didn't like not knowing, but before he could search for her, he heard knocking and rushed to let the paramedics into the apartment.

As he waited in the living room while they loaded his girlfriend onto the stretcher, he caught sight of movement in the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around in time to see Scout duck underneath the couch, and almost sighed in relief. He'd thought (half-hoped, if he would be honest) that he wouldn't be able to find her. But, as he followed the paramedics out of the apartment, he made a split second decision to lock the door behind him. It might not be soon, but he would be back eventually, and he wanted that Puppet there when he did.

()()()

Hours later, so many Will wasn't sure how long he'd been surrounded by the clean halls of the hospital, and Stacy was finally in a stable condition. She was still unconscious, but now it was more from the anesthetic than from almost dying due to infected surgery scars.

Because she had those.

A lot of them.

All over her body.

It had taken a long time for them to go into each one, clean out the infection, and then stitch her back up. Thankfully, there wasn't any damage beyond the infection, but the surgeon said it looked like someone had performed exploratory surgery on her. Badly, by the looks of things. Or at least, the doctor hadn't cared if she'd lived or died afterwards.

Will was going to murder that Puppet.

But for now he was in his own house, changing his clothes and getting ready to go hunt down said Puppet. One of those grabby things to get items off of high shelves, a large animal carrier, the long range tazer, and thick gloves. All of those went in to the back of his small car before he made his way back to Stacy's apartment.

As he reentered the apartment, he took note of how silent it was. The lights were still on from when the paramedics had been there, and nothing had moved from where it had been earlier. The only reason he had for knowing that thing was still in the building was the fact she was too short to open the door. And the one window in the room was still closed, that was a pretty big sign, too.

He searched the main room first, checking in the cupboards and under the couch. He found nothing except a couple of Stacy's smaller stuffed animals under the couch, which he found weird as usually his girlfriend was more careful with her stuff. He dug them out and put them back on the shelf, where they belonged. 

Unable to find the Puppet there, he went into the bedroom, closing the door behind him with a quiet click. It was almost as quiet as the main room, with a quiet, muffled sound coming from somewhere nearby.

' _Gotcha!_ ' He peered around the room, making sure she wasn't somewhere obvious and in sight. Unable to see her, it left only under the bed, so he crouched down to look.

To his luck, she hadn't noticed him yet. Her face was buried in her arms, with her small body shaking. The sounds, he realized, were sobs. He sat back up, massaging his forehead.

' _Dear God, don't let me feel pity for this thing. This is all her fault..._ ' He sat there for a moment, listening to the quiet sobbing. He sighed. ' _Fine..._ '

He crawled partway under the bed, keeping his distance. When she didn't react, he cleared his throat, making all sounds from her cease. Slowly, she looked up at him, and he caught the sight of her eye lids tilted the opposite way before she glared at him.

"What do you want?" She spat out, though her voice lacked the bite she wanted. Instead it sounded tired and strained, and Will figured she'd probably been crying for a long time.

"I came to check up on you." He lied smoothly. "And to, uh, give you an update on how Stacy's doing." The Puppet looked away, glaring at the wall the bed was against. "She's still alive, but has to stay in the hospital for a while." Nothing. Will licked his lips, throat feeling dry. "Did you know about all those extra scars?"

She cringed away, curling up tighter than she had been before. For a moment he thought she wouldn't answer, but her glare softened, even if she wouldn't look at him again.

"Riley did it. She likes taking Hosts apart and putting them back together weird. Sometimes she just likes looking at them, though. She only looked at Stacy, but I know she took out a Host's entire digestion tract once." She told him quietly, and Will felt the blood drain from his face.

"Uh..." He swallowed thickly, mouth dryer than ever. "Stacy still has all of her organs, at least." ' _What else can I say to that? Think, Will!_ ' "Want to come stay with me until she's better?" ' _Why did you say that?! Oh my god!_ '

For one, hopeful moment it looked like she was going to say no. But then she forced herself up right and turned to face him. "Fine." She ground out, making her way towards him.

' _Fuck! Shit! Nooooooooo!_ ' He crawled back out from the bed, waiting for her. ' _Why did I even ask that?! Now I'm stuck with her for god knows how long!_ ' He watched her crawl out from under the bed, then stood up, grabbing his taser.

"I have to do a couple of things before we go, so hang tight a minute." He told her, then made his way back to his car, where he dumped his hunting gear in the trunk and grabbed a duffel bag instead. He went back inside and to her bedroom, where he started packing some of her clothes into it. He then put the Switch and charger inside, and grabbed the backpack she always had, making sure her wallet was inside. He'd already taken her phone to the hospital, so at least he didn't need to worry about that.

That all collected and carried to his car, he returned to pick up Scout. He found her sitting on the couch, a small Kirby plush in her lap. She didn't look up when he entered the apartment, instead just slowly petting the toy.

"Uh..." Will cleared his throat and she looked up at him. "You ready to go?"

"Sure." She "stood" up and he, after a short hesitance, scooped her up. He carried her out to the car, making sure to lock the apartment behind them, and dumped her in the back seat with Stacy's stuff. He climbed into the front seat, and took a moment to stare out the windshield.

' _I can't believe I'm doing this. I don't want that thing in my house!_ ' He glanced back at Scout, noting she had unzipped the duffel and was trying to climb inside. He sighed, turning back around and starting the car. ' _At least she knows how to stay hidden. Stacy would kill me if I let anything happen to her._ '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, this is later than I thought it'd be. I kept getting distracted with stuff, work's been hard, and mine and my sister's birthday is tomorrow so I've been trying to prepare for that. Still, I managed to get it up on the right day, so that's gotta count for something, right?
> 
> Anyways, this a real important chapter, and it has a moral: Always go to the hospital if you've got weird surgery scars from insane voodoo puppets. Or they could get infected, you could get sepsis, or maybe she's taken your entire digestive tract.
> 
> She never put that back, by the way.


	10. A Real Guilty Feeling

When Will got home, he dumped Stacy's stuff and scout on the couch. He then pointed out his locked workroom, and told her that she was never to go in there no matter what. That done, he left her to her own devices, and went off to bed. He took off his shirt and jeans, then crawled under the sheets. The last thing he did before passing out was shoot off a message to the group chat about how DnD Night was canceled until further notice.

When he woke up, far too few hours later, it was to a light weight on his chest. He stared at Scout for a moment, then picked her up and dropped her on the floor, rolling onto his front. He grabbed his phone, squinting at the too bright screen. Several messages were in the chat, and he sighed as he opened it up and scrolled to the top.

Masonary: um, excuse me?! i asked for that day off u can't cancel!!! somebody better be dead! D:<

Blooming_Stitches: Mason, shut up. We don't know what could be going on.

drWEED420: ugh, stacy. I told you to call me.

Masonary: y would stacy need to call u sam?

Masonary: is it because she hacked ur account and changed ur name again?

_drWEED420 has changed their name to DrSamIAm_

DrSamIAm: no but it is something we'll going to talk abaout.

Will_and_a_Way: Stace is in the hospital for infected surgery stitches

Blooming_Stitches: I'M SORRY WHAT

Masonry: dude i was joking about som1 being dead

DrSamIAm: goddamit stacy

_DrSamIAm has left the chat We're ALL Idiots Here_

Masonry: ok first of all what happened to stacy

Masonry: second who changed the chat name again?

Blooming_Stitches: lol

Will sighed, the went into his phone and pulled up his drop box, where he'd sneaked the file into a while ago. He hesitated briefly, then sent it to the chat. Stacy could be mad at him later, but he was too tired to think up a cover story for her right now.

_Will_and_a_Way posted a file in We're ALL Idiots Here_

Masonry: ?

Blooming_Stitches: !

Will_and_a_Way: read that if you guys want to know what happned.

Will_and_a_Way: I'm going back to sleep now try not to kill each other

He clicked his phone off, dropping it to his mattress and letting his head fall on his pillow. Within seconds he was back asleep, completely oblivious to Scout Jumping back on his bed and climbing onto his back. She curled around the small Kirby toy, using it as a pillow as she settled back into sleep herself.

()()()

When Will woke up again, it was to a light weight in the center of his back, right below his shoulder blades. He huffed, glaring at the wall. He took a deep breath, then heaved himself up with all his strength. As predicted, Scout was catapulted off, and he quickly got out of bed, heading to the kitchen.

He made himself some toast, checking his phone on the way. The group chat was mostly just full of the various reactions from Lisa and Mason. Sammy had come back at some point, going on a rant about what Stacy hadn't told him.

He read over the various comments as he ate, able to tell where they were in the document. Unsurprisingly, Mason finished it first, and Lisa was intent on meeting Scout. Sammy had told her Scout was nothing special, which Will privately agreed with. He finished the back reading and, seeing as nobody was online at the moment, locked his phone again. He picked up his toast and moved into his work room for the time being, deciding to get something done.

It was easy, really, for Will to get lost in his work. Dissecting the "toys" he brought home, taking them apart and recording it in his notes. He was currently working on the body of the head he'd been looking at last night. The brown, fuzzy thing was strapped securely onto the table, the front having been sawed apart and spread open.

He shifted through the innards, making careful, detailed notes about what was in there. He would compare them to the stolen blueprints later, figure out what was supposed to be in there and what wasn't. For now, though, the intention was to make a catalogue of parts.

When his phone alarm finally went off, signalling it was lunch time, he straightened up with a sigh. He pulled off his rubber gloves and, making sure the straps on the table were tight, went out to the kitchen. He made himself a simple sandwich, eating it in the kitchen as he glanced through the group chat. Mason and Lisa were on and currently discussing things, but Sam hadn't been on again since his rant.

He lurked a bit longer after he finished his sandwich, then got up to go back to work. On the way through the living room, he paused when he saw Scout sitting on the couch. She was curled up in the corner, Kirby plush on her lap as she stared at it. Even as a Puppet, he recognized the look on her face as one Stacy had often worn in the first year after her mother had died.

' _Why the hell do I feel so bad for that thing?_ ' He sighed, rubbing at his face. Making a snap decision, he went over to his DVD shelf and pulled out _The Iron Giant_. He turned on the TV and player, then loaded in the movie, skipping the previews. When he reached the main menu, he selected play and dropped the remote near Scout. He then left, heading back towards the basement and his work.

Scout watched go, staring silently after him as he once again disappeared behind the locked door. She didn't even try to follow him, instead settling in to watch the show he'd turned on. With any luck, it would be violent and/or funny enough to take her mind off of things.

()()()

' _That is the saddest shit I have ever seen..._ ' She sniffed, rubbing at her frustratingly dry eyes. ' _I can't believe he let himself get blown up like that. What the fuck._ ' She rubbed at her eyes some more, then tried to figure out how to choose a different show. When she couldn't figure it out, she threw the remote down in frustration. ' _Fuck it! Where's Will?_ '

She Jumped from the couch, heading over to the locked door. She peered in the crack between the door and the floor, but couldn't see anything. She could hear, however, and what she heard were power tools. The sound sent a shock through her system, dredging up unwanted memories of Riley's lab. She drew back, then jumped onto a nearby table when the noise stopped. Thinking quickly, she opened the drawer that was there and tried to pretend that she had been going through it.

Will came out of the room a minute later, wiping his hands with a dirty towel. He glared when he saw what she was "doing". "What the hell are you doing? Get out of there!" It wasn't quite yelling, but his voice was definitely louder than it needed to be. Scout suppressed her fear and scoffed.

"Fine. There wasn't anything but batteries in there anyways." She slammed the drawer closed, feeling a small, petty joy in how the contents rattled around when she did. She watched him cross to his bedroom and, when he'd closed his door, opened the drawer back up in order to snoop for real.

Batteries, keys, some weird plastic clips, and other odds and ends she didn't have words for had been organized neatly in the drawer. Working quickly, she shuffled everything around even more, then shoved a handful of what was sitting on the table into the drawer. She then closed it again and sat back as innocently as she could, tilting the shade of the lamp next to her. When Will came back out, now dressed in different clothes, he sighed and fixed the shade.

She watched as he gathered up a couple of things, then came over and grabbed up a set of keys she hadn't dumped into the drawer. There was a pause, or maybe more of a hesitation, and then he scooped her up and left the house, ignoring her protests.

"Hey! Hey lemme go! H-mmph?!" He easily covered her mouth with one hand as he locked the door. He made his way to his car, not letting her go into he'd climbed in and dumped her in the passenger seat. "What was that for?!"

"Okay, here's the deal." He told her, ignoring the question. "We're going to go see Stacy. To do that, we have to go through a whole hospital full of people. And you will be quiet and good the whole time, or you will be going out the nearest window."

"We're going to go see Stacy..." That was the one thing she had really comprehended. Her Host was alive, Scout knew she had to be. If she wasn't, then the Puppet wouldn't have long to-

It didn't matter. She didn't matter, not after what almost happened. Not after what she almost did, accidentally or not.

She was jolted out of her thoughts as Will started the car, realizing belatedly that he'd continued talking to her. She hoped he hadn't noticed she wasn't paying attention. Whatever he'd been doing behind that door, she did not want to become his next patient.

In the silence of the car ride, Scout easily lost herself in the thoughts swirling through her head. The most prominent were thoughts of guilt, knowing she was to blame for this and wondering where she had gone wrong. Maybe she hadn't tried as hard as she should've to subjugate her Host back in the Studio? Or maybe she shouldn't have stayed with her after they escaped. Maybe she should have left after making sure Stacy was okay.

' _Maybe I should leave anyways._ '

She missed it when Will parked, only noticing when he picked her up. She let herself stay limp, though not so much out of compliance than a desire to try and keep working on the plan that had come to mind. 

Vaguely, she was aware of the clean white halls Will was taking her through, as well as a nauseating smell that reminded her of Riley. A few other unclaimed Hosts like Will, though wearing clothing that, again, reminded Scout of Riley. She watched those ones carefully, just in case. She may not like Will, but Stacy did and she didn't want something to happen to him.

Will came up to a door, opening it and peeking inside. Scout tried to look, but could only see the very end of a weird looking bed. Whatever he saw he seemed to like, as he fully entered the room, kicking the door closed behind him and approaching the bed.

"Hey Stacy." He began quietly, and Scout felt her stuffing go cold at the sight of her Host in the bed. Her normally warm brown skin was several shades paler, and there were dark circles under her eyes. She was mostly upright, though leaning heavily against the pillows behind her. The scariest thing, though, were the several tubes connecting her to various machines by the bed.

Scout felt another cold rush of guilt when she saw how Stacy's eyes lit up when she spotted them. She waited for her to say something, anything, but the Host didn't speak, instead lifting her hands to use that weird hand language. 

"She can't talk right now." Will translated. "She had to be intubated and her throat still hurts. But, for some reason, she's happy to see you." He sounded annoyed by that, and Scout couldn't help but be confused. Surely Stacy knew about what she did.

' _Unless she doesn't._ ' The Puppet realized. 'She doesn't know shit about how it works. She had no idea what I almost did to her.' Somehow, that didn't make it any better. 

Against her will, she was handed over to Stacy so Will could go set down the bags. Stacy hugged her tight, and Scout couldn't help but curl up in her hold, clutching at the weird shirt she was wearing.

She ignored the humans as they talked, or rather as Will talked and Stacy did one handed signing. Instead she stared at the tubing connected to Stacy's arm, watching the clear liquid slowly drip it's way into her body. She didn't know how long she stared for, but she must've dozed off at one point because she suddenly became aware of her hair being stroked.

It couldn't have been too long, as the room was still bright, though she couldn't hear Will anymore. Instead there was a quiet, steady beeping that matched up with Stacy's heartbeat. It was relaxing, and brought up memories of when Scout had first woken up, all those years ago. Before she'd been made to take part in Riley's "tests", or found that TV. Even before she'd met her siblings and learned who and what she really was. Those first few moments when it had just been her and Daisy, enjoying the gift of life.

She almost wished she could go back to that point. Things were so much better back then, when her world consisted of Daisy's sewing room and her siblings. When she didn't have a Host to worry about accidentally killing, or her own people coming after her. 

But she wouldn't have to worry about that for long. If her plan ended up working, Stacy wouldn't be in danger ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, here's chapter 10! But, unfortunately, it'll be the last chapter you see for a while. I need to take a break from writing for a while, do something else and recharge a bit. Maybe also knock out some drawings too while I'm at it.
> 
> Current timeline is looking like this: Couple of weeks without writing, and then maybe build up a bit of a buffer of chapters for _Outside_. But first, I'll be working on episode 2 of _Happy Times at Handeemen HQ_. Y'all are starting to show an interest in that, and I wanna put something new out for it.
> 
> If you want to keep updated, or even just see what I'm drawing, you can follow my art Tumblr(https://creativeskullcreations.tumblr.com/) or my DeviantArt(https://www.deviantart.com/creativeskull95). Also check out my YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb1b2UWI4tQ30sB2jk8-3TA?view_as=subscriber), in case of livestreams or speedpaints!(Am I plugging my own stuff too much?)
> 
> Whenever I'm ready to start posting again, I'll make sure to leave an announcement on there too. I'll also try and reply to any comments that get left on here, though I might not be able to answer everyone.
> 
> I'll see y'all later.


	11. Back Home

Stacy hated hospitals, and doctors, and anything related to them. She hated them so much that, when Granny Linda was dying, she wrote her letters rather than visit her. But, as she grew older, she thought the fear would fade, especially when she'd need to be there herself.

The fear hadn't faded. Not one bit.

But, at least, Stacy knew enough not to show she was afraid when Scout or Will were there. When they were around it was easier to ignore what the doctor had said about the stitches, and about what those stitches had done to her arm. 

As it turned out, having a twice used puppet covered in dried blood sewn to your arm could cause really bad infections. Who knew?

It had been numb and cold all the way up to the elbow, and then started burning, spreading out from the scars circling her arm. It also turned an agressive, angry red color, and had started swelling. The doctors had drawn a line, but the infection had quickly spread past it and, well...

Now she had a stump, cut off right below the elbow. The end was bandaged, and, though it was numbed, sometimes she felt a throbbing from it in time with a heart beat. But that wasn't what bothered her about it.

When Will first brought Scout in after the amputation, the poor Puppet had cried out at the sight, refusing to get close to Stacy. Instead she hid in his bag during the entire visit, refusing to come out at all. And, when Will came the next day, he mentioned she had hidden from him when it was time to leave the house. It made Stacy a bit sad, but she decided to ignore it for now, sure that Scout would come around after some time alone. 

(Much later, she would wish she had pushed for answer, or for Scout to come see her more. Either one might have helped in the long run.)

Instead Stacy would talk to Will, who had finally convinced her, about moving in with him. She hadn't wanted to move in before graduating, but considering the hospital trip, and how many classes she'd missed, she would be working through the summer to catch up. Plus, he wanted a safer place for her to finish healing at and, while he didn't live in the best neighborhood, it was certainly safer to stay together for this.

So Stacy made due with the visits Will made alone and, when the time came, the visits ARI made for talks of her prosthetic. They couldn't do anything yet, her stump had to heal first, but eventually she'd be able to go get fitted for one. Until then, though, she'd have to go home with only one-and-a-half arms.

It was Will, obviously, who came to pick her up, though to Stacy's disappointment he hadn't brought Scout with him. "She didn't want to come." Was all he said when she questioned him about it. "Maybe she's making a card for you or something?"

"Maybe..." She agreed, as Will wheeled her down the hall. Her hand clenched the edge of her t-shirt, eyes focused down on the pamphlets in her lap about living as an amputee or whatever. She hadn't really read them yet. "Hey, does this mean I can park in the disabled spots at Walmart?"

"Probably, if you can get one of those things for your car." He said as they made it out of the hospital. He wheeled her over to his car, grabbing her bag to put in the bag while she climbed into the front passenger seat. She played with the window while he went around to the driver's side.

"So, how's Scout been. She hasn't been around since..." She trailed off, watching as they pulled out of the lot.

"Since your arm was chopped?" Will finished for her. "She's fine as far as I can tell. Mostly just watches the movies I put on for her." He grimaced. "Last night was Venom, though, so now she wants a pile of heads I think."

"We can get her some Barbies to take apart." Stacy said. "Do you think she'd like that? The she could have her pile of heads and a pile of bodies."

"That's morbid as hell." Will said, slightly horrified. "Do you seriously think she'd go for something like that?"

"I don't know. Maybe?" She shrugged. "Maybe we should just start with one Barbie, and see what she does with it."

"Maybe we could get her some army toys instead. I can't see that thing playing dress up." He shook his head. "No Nerf guns though. I don't feel like getting shot every time I walk into a room, foam darts or not."

Stacy snorted at the mental image that brought up. "We could do that. I don't know, I just want her to do something that isn't staring at the TV all the time."

"I know, but at least it keeps her quiet." Will pointed out. "Which means I've been getting my work done."

"Oooh, excellent!" Stacy grinned. "Anything good?"

"Nope." He popped the 'P'. "Just the same old shitty toys. And not a one of them held any answer as to what's been going on."

"That's a shame." Stacy muttered, propping her chin on her hand and staring out the window. The two lapsed into companionable silence, one driving while the other watched the road go by. 

Eventually, they pulled up to Will's house. Stacy already had some stuff at his place, thought they'd be gong to get the rest in a few days. Until them, though, Stacy was just glad to finally be home.

They walked in, Will carting the bags while Stacy did her best to hide her stump, tugging her t -shirt sleeve down as far as it would go. Scout was immediately obvious on the couch, absorbed in whatever movie Will had put on before he'd left. She glanced over briefly when the door opened, then went right back to watching the TV. Taking a breath, Stacy went right over and sat down next to her on her left.

"So, what are you watching?" She kept her tone light, and the left side of her body angled away. With any luck, Scout wouldn't freak out like she'd done at the hospital. Maybe they could even pretend, for a moment, that things were halfway normal.

"Something stupidly colorful." The Puppet replied, not looking away from the screen. "Will put it on, but I don't know what it's called."

Stacy watched for a moment, but recognized the show quickly. She leaned around the TV to stare at her boyfriend. "You're making her watch My Little Pony?"

"She needs the friendship lessons." Will told her from where he was making lunch. Stacy just sighed, settling back into her place on the couch.

"So, who's your favorite character?" She asked, figuring it better to just go ahead with a conversation than sit in silence.

"I like the blue one." Scout said. "She has awesome hair."

"She does." Stacy agreed. "My favorite is Rarity, because she always knows how to get what she wants."

"Cool." And then the conversation died. Stacy wondered, briefly, if she should try to talk to Scout about her arm, about how it really wasn't that big of a deal, but then decided against it. She'd let the Puppet come to her about it, first, and just... go from there she supposed. No need to distress her about it any more than necessary, after all.

Instead they watched the show. Though even that was ruined when Stacy reached over absently to fix Scout's hair. It was the wrong move, as the Puppet first flinched away, then crawled off the couch and vanished somewhere. Will came out soon after with some food.

"Where'd the haunted Puppet go?" He asked as he handed her a sandwich. Stacy didn't answer, just stared down at the floor. She felt miserable for whatever was causing this, and hated it. She wanted to fix whatever had Scout acting like this, but instead had come to a bad conclusion.

"Do you think it was wrong to bring Scout out here?" She asked quietly, in case said Puppet was still around. "Like, do you think she would be doing better if I had left her back there? Because she seems like she's not doing good. And maybe she's missing something out here that she could've gotten back there? I don't know, am I going crazy? Because it feels like I'm going crazy." She took a bite of her sandwich to try and stop the rambling, while Will stared at her.

"Um..." He put his own plate on the coffee table. "I... don't think I can help you with this."

"Yeah." She mumbled around peanut butter and jelly. "Yeah I know. I just feel like I'm missing something with her."

"It's probably stress." Will suggested. "Both you and her. Give it some time and things will be back to normal."

"I hope you're right..." Stacy muttered, watching the colorful ponies on the screen.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Stacy paused the episode until Scout could return to watch it herself, not wanting her to miss anything. They then ate lunch, Stacy keeping an eye out in case Scout showed back up. Will then spent much of the day continuing the cleaning he'd been doing since they decided they would live together. Stacy, for her part, sat on the couch watching and occasionally shouting encouragements.

When that was done they had dinner, a simple hamburger helper meal that was tasty and easy. While Will was cooking, however, Stacy searched for Scout, but couldn't find her anywhere. She became more and more frantic about it until Will finally made her stop.

"She's fine, Stace." He told her as he set the table. "Probably just under the couch or something. I think she's been sleeping down there, actually."

Stacy frowned, but did stop searching, sitting down to eat. Still, she remained hopeful that the Puppet would appear soon, if only to try the food. But, they finished dinner, cleaned up, and even got ready for bed without Scout appearing even once. 

Stacy wanted to wait up for her, hopeful she'd show up before bed. But eventually Will made her lay down and turned out the lights. "Just leave it alone for tonight. She'll show up tomorrow, she always does."

"I just don't want her to be alone..." She muttered, pulling the covers up higher. 

"I mean technically she's not, since we're in the house too." Will told her. She smiled slightly in response, though it quickly vanished. She rolled over to face away from Will, trying to set up the bed so it'd be appealing for Scout. Eventually her boyfriend grabbed her, pulling her against his chest.

"Okay, time for sleep now." He pinned her arm down when she kept trying to rearrange the sheets. " _Sleep_ , for fuck's sake. We have a lot to do tomorrow, and I am not dealing with your fidgeting tonight."

She harrumphed, but finally settled down, though it wasn't like she had a choice. She did still try her best to stay up, but still found her eyes shutting against her will. Shortly after she drifted off, Will did as well.

Underneath the bed, laying on her stomach, was Scout. She had her head turned away, eyes downcast. She'd heard every word of the humans above her, but had resisted going up to sleep with Stacy. 

She couldn't risk it, what might happen while she was unconscious. And it was easier to resist the urge to feed off of her when she wasn't in contact with the Host. She hated it, and felt like she was starving, but she didn't want to drain her. 

Scout cared too much now. She was a terrible Handeeman Puppet.

' _It's my fault she's missing an arm. My fault she went to the hospital in the first place. I wish she'd been a good Host, so that Riley we'd never had to face._ ' She buried her face in her arms to muffle the sobs that had started. ' _I didn't want this. I don't want this. It was supposed to be good out here. Why isn't it good?_ '

\---------------------

The vents were a great way to get around, in Canon's opinion. Even with the rats running around, it was better than trying to sneak past Hibird. Especially this close to Mortimer's room, as it was guarded especially well. Still, she somehow managed to make it to a grate in the ceiling, and hunkered down nearby to listen in.

For several hours, there was nothing. Not a sound, movement, or even a light. But, eventually when Canon was almost asleep, the door banged open.

"Riley Riley Riley, I am disappointed! It has been months, and on Scout's location I have still not been updated!" That was Mortimer! And he was talking about Scout! This was perfect! Canon crawled closer, not wanting to miss a single word.

"My apologies, but I have tried everything! But no matter who or what I send out, the results are nothing!" Riley ranted desperately. "She and her Host have completely vanished! They are nowhere in this city, and I know there's nowhere that I have missed!"

"Yes yes, but there are other cities, other towns. Have you searched outside this one, in your attempt to hunt them down?" The Magician asked, almost flippant in his tone.

"No, those are towns too far away. To make it there, and back alone would take weeks, not a day." Riley told him, almost desperately. "We don't have the puppets, nor the time. And besides, it's near the day to replace our Hosts, yours and mine."

"Hm, what you say is true. Searching those cities would be hard to do." He agreed, and Canon leaned in to try and listen better. "But, lucky for you I have a plan to find our lost Puppet and her wayward human."

"Oh?" Riley seemed as interested as Canon. "And what would it be? And when were you even thinking of telling me?" Ouch, poor Riley. Canon had no experience with rejection, but this certainly seemed like it.

"Oh be quiet, I'm telling you now. You're making a racket, so do settle down." He dismissed, tone flippant. Even without being able to see her, Canon knew Riley had steam coming out of her ears from that.

"Settle down?!" Whatever else Riley would've yelled was lost as something grabbed Canon, making her scream. She was dragged down through the vents, and then through a different grate closer to the floor. Whatever had grabbed her tossed her through, leaving her in a tiny heap on the floor, with the two Handeemen looming over her.

"Well well well, what do we have here? A tiny little Hand Puppet!" His Host grabbed her by the neck, picking her up. "How much did you hear?!"

"I-I-I-I just wanted to know about Scout!" She gasped out breathlessly. "We've heard nothing at all, since she broke out!"

Mortimer didn't look convinced, but did loosen his grip. "And you thought spying was the best way to find out? Surely there was a better idea than skulking about."

"We've asked and asked, but no one will say a thing!" Canon gasped out. "Can you blame me for wanting to know what happened to my sibling?"

"Hmm, I suppose not. We have kept you all quite in the dark." Riley admitted from where she stood behind him. "In doing so, we might have missed a mark."

"Hmm, Riley I do believe you're right." Mortimer said, grabbing Canon himself from his Host. "In fact, you might be just who we need tonight!"

"So, you're not mad? Uh, I didn't do... bad?" ' _That was horrible oh my god!_ '

"Oh, no no no, I'm not mad, not one bit!" Mortimer assured her, moving over to a table and setting her down there. "In fact, you'll be a big help to this plan, making it go off without a hitch!"

"Really?!" Canon felt excitement in spite of herself. After all, it wasn't everyday that a Hostless Puppet got to help Mortimer.

"Mortimer are you sure?" Riley asked as he collected some items and a large, black book. "There are others who can help who are... more."

' _Gee, thanks Riley._ ' Canon thought, but Mortimer brushed her off. "Of course my dear, on this, I am now quite set!" He set the materials down, then started placing candles around the hand Puppet. "Besides, every good idea needs a good test. Surely you agree, Doctor Ruckus." He turned, giving Canon a truly winning smile as the candles all lit with black flame. "Yes, this little one truly be a big help to us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Yeah, not a lot happens in it, but it's mostly the set up chapter for the next arc.
> 
> Next update will be in two weeks, like always, though I intend to post the next part of Happy Times episode two somewhere between now and then. So keep an eye out for that guys! :D


	12. Move Out!

The apartment was full of boxes of Stacy's stuff that Will had spent however long packing for her. To the young woman, who hadn't been home in weeks, it was an odd feeling seeing her home in boxes, with her shelves and closet empty. Currently she was helping to move said boxes into the U Haul outside. By which I mean she was holding the door for Will and Mason, who were the ones actually moving the boxes. While the boys were busy, Lisa was cleaning out the cupboards and fridge, which Will had forgotten about completely despite being there so often.

"Seriously, Will! You've been over here for how many days, and never thought to check the fridge for leftovers?" Lisa asked as she threw the food, Tupperware and all, into the trash. "What, were you just bringing food from home everyday?"

"Yes." Will answered seriously, not looking up from his work. The blonde woman stared dumbfounded before rolling her eyes. 

"Unbelievable! Mason! You hearing this shit?" She called. Mason gave a thumbs up as he walked by, arms laden with shoe boxes. Stacy watched him closely, not wanting to lose her old games in case he dropped them. Not that she could do much to catch them with only one arm, but she could at least yell at him for it.

"It's not that big a deal, Lisa." She told her friend, after making sure Mason could navigate the stairs okay. "Really, most of the stuff in there had probably already gone bad anyways."

"That's not the point! It's still a waste!" The blonde insisted, dumping a bottle of juice with clouds of mold floating in it into the trash. Stacy winced, knowing she'd bought that back in December and then forgotten about it. It was still mostly full, too.

"Yeah..." She moved back to the couch, where she'd left her bag. Inside the bag was Scout with the Switch. It was a risk bringing her while they did this, but somehow Stacy felt it would be a bigger risk to leave her behind. So she'd brought her along, making her she had the Switch to stay entertained, even if she had to keep the sound off. And so far, nobody seemed to have noticed.

She opened the bag, peering inside. The Puppet was curled up in the bottom, the Switch off and sitting next to her. "Hey, you okay in there?" She asked quietly.

"I'm fine!" Scout hissed back. "Close the fucking bag!" Stacy did so, zipping it all the way shut and leaving it on the couch. She sat next to it, watching the others work to pack up her home, moving the boxes down to the U Haul in the street. She wanted to help, but the few times she attempted to she dropped stuff, and then Will finally made her stop. 

Still, she felt restless, so much so that eventually she grabbed her bag and stood up. "Hey, I'm going for a walk! I'll be back later!" She called out. Mason, who was nearby, gave her a wave of acknowledgement.

"Don't get eaten by the gators." He told her. She waved back, but ignored him as she went down the stairs, pausing just at the door to open it back up and grab Scout out of it.

"Hey!" She protested, but Stacy ignored her, holding her in the crook of her right arm as she swung her bag back on. It was difficult to do one handed, and she did need to try and maneuver around Scout, but she managed to get it back on

"We're going for a walk. You need some air." She told the Puppet as she did this. Said Puppet still struggled to try and break free, pounding fabric fists against her arm.

"No I fucking don't! I need to go back in the bag!" She fought against her Host, but was ignored as Stacy continued out of the lobby and walked down the sidewalk outside. Eventually she gave up, realizing that her fighting would only attract the attention of strangers. Instead she huddled back against Stacy's body at the largeness of the world around her, that she only now viewed completely unobscured. She stared with wide eyes as the human hurried her way down the street, crossing it periodically, until she came to a place empty of buildings.

Greenery covered the area, a shade the Puppet had never seen before in fact. There was a large body of water in the middle, and some odd, colorful object in one "corner" of the area. Tiny Hosts, children, were playing on the objects, but Stacy went right by them. Instead she headed down the path to a more secluded and wooded area. She sat cross-legged by a tree, finally letting Scout go. The Puppet flopped over in her lap.

"Why are we even out here?" She griped, staring at the grass. There was a weird red bug not far away, that she hoped wouldn't come close to them. If it even tried she would smack it. 

"Because you need fresh air. You can't just hide in the bag all day, no matter what Will says." Stacy told her. "Besides, I don't like watching them do all that for me, knowing I can't help them." She very much did NOT look at her stump, absolutely not. Instead she stared through the trees at the still somewhat visible lake. There were ducks on it, and she could see a couple of people feeding them.

She wondered if Scout would like feeding them.

Rather than getting up, though, she stayed seated, letting Scout look around instead. She'd been meaning to bring the Puppet out here, but hadn't had a chance before the hospitalization. And then there was the remainder of the healing, taken place at Will house - now her and Will's house - during which he'd barely let her out of sight. It was only after an intense, whispered argument that he'd even begun to let up and allow her to do stuff for herself again, though he'd still hovered.

And now they were finishing packing up her apartment, ready to make the move complete. It was a shame, in her mind. She really did love her independence. But, it was better for everyone involved if this move happened. Especially Scout. If her and Will staggered their schedules, someone could be with her at all times.

(Stacy didn't know yet why that was so important, though. She just knew she didn't want Scout alone.)

But now, at least, she could take Scout out to enjoy some nature. And even now she had crawled down to the ground to pick at the grass, and Stacy winced when she thought of the grass stains that would form. But, she didn't stop her, letting her explore around a little, and look at things. Scout even picked up a stick, though she only used it to swat a ladybug.

Soon the Puppet climbed back into her lap, looking mildly disgusted and agitated. "I hate it here. It smells fucking weird, and I want to go back to your house."

Stacy snorted, but complied, getting up with only a little difficulty. Scout climbed up to her shoulder, stick still in hand. "Fine, we'll go back. It's almost lunch time anyways. Also what you're smelling is the trees and grass."

"The trees and grass fucking stink." Scout grumbled, and Stacy did laugh quietly at that, and got smacked lightly with the stick for it.

"Well, you're not wrong." She admitted, grabbing the stick away from the Puppet and dropping it on the ground. "It can be kinda an acquired taste, so to speak."

"Ew." Scout muttered, covering her nose as they started back the way they'd come. She glared suspiciously at the plants as they passed, as though she was worried they'd spray their stench right at her.

Stacy wondered what she'd think about skunks when she found out about them.

They made their way back to Stacy's apartment in silence, though it was a more comfortable silence than before. As Stacy made her way back upstairs to her apartment, Scout took the chance to hide in the bag. Stacy may believe her friends were good, but that didn't mean Scout did. Not that it mattered much, anyways.

Soon after Stacy got back, the group decided to go for lunch, which really just meant that Mason went to get McDonald's. Stacy asked for a Happy Meal, then slipped the opened toy into her bag for Scout when no one was looking. She didn't know if the Puppet would even want the little Barbie, but it certainly didn't hurt to offer it up.

They all ate quickly, talking and laughing as they did. Lisa ribbed Will on when he would propose, now that they were living together. "You only have so long before her other hand goes." She pointed out jokingly. "Then where will you put the ring?"

Will just shrugged, and Stacy pelted her with chicken nuggets. Mason laughed.

"The neck, obviously. She'd need a nice collar to help keep her out of trouble." He explained. "I could even make you a fancy chain for night time if you need it."

"Wow!" Stacy gave an over exaggerated gasped, though she wasn't really offended. Far too often had she sneaked out at night to go explore some place or another. "And right after I threw my nuggets at Lisa, too!"

"Don't fault me on my timing!" Will smacked a ketchup packet on the back of his head, making a horrid squelching sound. "Ew! _Will!_ " The man's voice jumped up several octaves, but Will just kept on chewing his burger.

"Oof. That's gonna need a shower. You're showering when we get home Mason." Lisa said as he tried to clean his hair with some napkins.

Eventually, though, they managed to finish eating and get back to packing. And after that it wasn't long before all of the boxes loaded up into the U Haul. As they filtered out, Mason, Will, and Lisa carrying the last few boxes, Stacy paused to take one last look.

The living room looked just like it had before she moved in. Kind of sad, really, even with the memories it brought back. She could almost see herself and her family helping her move in four years ago, and remembered the excitement she'd felt back then. Or when she'd bring Will over, before he'd moved out here himself, and how much fun they'd have.

She didn't want to leave. Will had to come back up and lead her out, then drop the keys off at the office with her.

Stacy got into the U Haul with Mason and they made their way to Will's house. They would unload it tomorrow, with another fast-food lunch somewhere in there. Until then they were all due for a good night's sleep and some real food for supper.

After Mason and Lisa left and Will started on dinner, Stacy opened up her bag to finally let Scout out. "Finally!" The Puppet gasped out dramatically, flopping out onto the couch. "I though I was going to fucking die!"

"Oh please, you were fine." Stacy snorted. "And don't worry, tomorrow we'll be working here and you can stay in the bedroom. I'll make sure Lisa and Mason stay out of there."

"Uuuuugh!" She groaned, rolling onto her back. "How much longer do I have to deal with them?!" She yelled at, and Stacy almost did laugh at that.

"You aren't dealing with anything but being in the bedroom." She told the Puppet, standing up to go set the table. "Do you wanna eat supper with us tonight?" She asked, more than a little hopeful.

"Nah, you guys go on ahead." She said, already making her way across the couch to the remote. "I found this cool show I wanna watch instead."

"Oh. Did you want me to bring you some food, then?" Stacy hoped she would say yes. She didn't know for sure if Scout needed to eat, but didn't want her to go hungry either way.

"Nope." The Puppet said, in a tone that signaled the end of any discussion on it. Stacy didn't push, and instead went into the kitchen herself. She leaned on the counter on her good hand and sighed heavily.

"You can't make her eat or join us if she doesn't want to." Will told her, deadpan. Stacy pouted.

"I know. But!" She shot up. "What if she needs to eat? What if she starves herself because of something I did? Or because she hates it here?" Will stopped stirring the meat in the pan, fixing his girlfriend with a hard stare.

"Stop freaking out." He told her, then blinked as he realized something. "Wait... Did you take your meds today?" He asked.

"No they need to be refilled. But I'm fine without them, these are real concerns, Will!" She insisted, and he just sighed, turning back to the pan.

"Yeah... we're getting those refilled as soon as possible." He muttered, though not quietly enough.

'Will!" Stacy smacked the counter, but was ignored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo, got this up in time! :D
> 
> And we're meeting Stacy's other two friends! I hope y'all like them, or at least grow to like them cause we'll be seeing them a lot more in the coming chapters. They're important to the story. ;D


	13. Moving In

The next day started easily enough. Will and Stacy ate breakfast, and the set up the bedroom for Scout to stay in. Stacy saw no point in forcing the Puppet to hide in a bag all day again, when they could simply let her stay in the bedroom instead. She set up the laptop with Netflix, and made sure the Switch was all charged up for her to play on when she got bored of movies. She even asked what kind of snacks she'd want, though that didn't get a reply.

Still, they managed to get her settled in and locked the door just in time for Lisa and Mason to show up. Though Lisa was more than a little curious about it.

"So." The blonde started, quirking an eyebrow. "Why'd you lock the bedroom door?" Her tone was teasing, but Stacy felt a cold rush of fear from what she might think if she found Scout. Would Lisa run? Or would she be violent to Scout? Or worse, would she want to play dress up with her?

No. Under no circumstances should Lisa find out about the Puppet. Not yet, and not now.

"It's just a mess from last night, so we figured we'd be polite about it." Stacy told her, the lie she'd practiced coming easily. Will knew the story too, and had even checked it for holes.

"Oh, please, you two are as vanilla as fresh milk." Lisa countered, and Stacy panicked. The one thing they hadn't considered! "What are you hiding in there? A puppy? Or maybe a kitten?" She looked excited, and Stacy could feel a headache coming on.

"Nothing you need to see, Lisa." Will told her as he walked past. "Now, are you gonna help us out or not? I want to get this done today, so I don't have to pay extra for the truck."

"Fine, fine. But I am so gonna find out what you guys are hiding in there!" She promised. Stacy just scoffed as they followed Will outside.

"Good luck." Was all she said, even knowing Lisa would only take it as a challenge. She had faith, though, that her friend wouldn't be able to beat it.

Not that it stopped her from trying, of course. Lisa was nothing if not determined.

And so, in between carrying boxes into Will's house, the attempted to see what was in the bedroom. It started simple, with just trying to see through the keyhole or under the door. And then Mason caught her outside, trying to look in the window. 

"Okay Lees, seriously?! Are you high? Because this seems like the kind of thing only High Lisa would do." He scolded as he dragged her back inside by the arm. Luckily Will and Stacy weren't nearby, or she'd be getting a double helping of Disappointed Glaring. No, they were getting ready to go buy everyone Subway, which was real nice of them if you asked Mason.

"Lil bit." She admitted. "But don't you wanna know what Mr. and Mrs. Vanilla think is kinky?" Mason just sighed, rubbing his eyes as she continued. "I'll bet they aren't, really. I think they adopted a pet! Which would be really weird for Stacy, since she doesn't like animals."

"You're such a fucking motormouth when you get high." He groaned before practically flinging her into the armchair in the living room. He grabbed his phone and put on a random YouTube video. "Watch that and try to sober up a bit, okay? And no more trying to look in their bedroom, you fucking weirdo."

"Yeah okay..." She mumbled, already entranced by the cat video. Mason smirked as he went back outside to see their friends off and double check the U haul for any forgotten boxes. He caught them just as they were getting into Will's car.

"We'll be back soon." Will said as Stacy climbed in the passenger seat. He himself was already in the driver's seat, food list clutched in one hand. "Stay out of our bedroom. And my basement."

"Will do boss!" Mason agreed, then watched them go. He checked the truck, finding no boxes. He closed the door, then went back inside to wait for Will and Stacy to return.

He went to the living room, only to find Lisa not where he left her. the only thing on the arm chair was his cell phone, neatly placed in the very center. He swore and picked it, shoving it in his pocket as he rushed to the bedroom door. She was there, of course, kneeling in front of it as she picked the lock. She looked up as he approached, looking quite cheery.

"Now's our chance!" She hissed excitedly as she worked the door. Mason grabbed her arm, trying to pull her away even as she kept working.

"Lees, no! You don't know what could be in there!" He insisted, but she pulled back. He didn't fight her too hard, not wanting to hurt her, but she was quite obviously out of her mind. 

"C'mon Mason! Don't tell me you're not curious!" She grinned as she broke free, and finished unlocking the door. "Ooooh, what if it's that weird occult stuff they're into? That could be fun."

"No, it wouldn't!" Mason had seen things, back when Will had first started his hunting hobby. Things that still gave him nightmares sometimes. "We shouldn't open that door."

"Too late!" Lisa exclaimed gleefully, shoving it open and peering inside. Despite his protests, Mason did too, curious as to what exactly Will would allow to be kept in his bedroom. 

'Maybe it is just a puppy or something. God I hope that's all it is.' He thought desperately, tensed to run at the first sign of trouble.

For a long moment, nothing happened. There was no movement, and the bedroom looked just like it always did, though with an open laptop and a Switch on the bed. Mason sighed in relief, and went to close the door.

"See? Nothing there except a computer and Nintendo. Now, let's close the door and lock up again before they get back and we get in trouble." He closed the door, completely missing the small figure that sneaked out as he did so.

"Pfft, lame." Lisa knelt down and began to try and re-lock the door. "I thought for sure there'd be a dildo or something on the floor, at the very least!"

"Yeah, well, there's not. So let's never mention this to anyone ever, okay?" Mason asked, turning and going into the kitchen, only to freeze at what he saw there.

"Ugh, fiiiine!" The blonde groaned as she finished up. She stood up, only to find her friend standing stock still in front of the kitchen counter. "Uh, Mason?" She joined him, only to stop and stare too.

"Nobody fucking move!" It was a small blue hand puppet with purple hair. It was pointing a large kitchen cleaver straight at them, and glaring with angry yellow eyes. It looked mad, madder than Mason could remember any other doll looking.

And it was the cutest thing Lisa had ever seen. 

"You're so adorable!" She squealed, making both puppet and Mason jump. The puppet readjusted it's grip, now pointing the knife at her while Mason stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" He yelled. "We're being mugged by a possessed puppet, and you think it's cute?! Lisa!"

"But look at it! It's got little mitten hands, and some of the most realistic hair I've ever seen! It's so cute!" She reached for it, only drawing back when it swung the knife wildly at her hands. "Aw, I can't believe Stacy never told me about you!"

"How fucking high are you?!" Mason asked at the same the Puppet yelled "Get the hell out of my house!"

A dull thump sounded behind them, and the two humans turned to see Will staring at the Puppet in shock, Subway bags on the floor around him. "She has a knife." He muttered, sounding just a little bit broken. "Why does she have a knife? I hid all the knives."

Stacy came charging around him, more bags hanging from her arm. She went right pass Mason and Lisa, and grabbed the knife away from the Puppet. She set it down on the counter then grabbed the Puppet up and hugged her close, though she resisted.

"They broke into the bedroom!" She insisted, jabbing a mitten hand at the two. "They broke in! I didn't break out, I swear!" Her voice held a desperate edge to it, one that made Lisa feel bad for being curious at all. For one white hot second, she worried Stacy might be the type to punish the poor thing for this.

"Scout- Scout it's fine! I'm not mad." Stacy turned to glare at Lisa. "At you, anyways." She finished, a stern tone to her voice. Lisa knew immediately she had to try and defuse the situation.

"Aw, c'mon Stace! You can't fault me for thinking you guys were hiding something in there. And, I was right! You were hiding this adorable little thing! How could you do that to me Stacy?" She gave puppy dog eyes, but her friend just sighed.

"You're lucky I only have one hand, or I'd smack you." She deadpanned. 

"Fair enough." The blonde grinned. "Let me make it up to you. I can make this little cutie some new shirts, so she's not wearing that filthy one all the time."

Stacy paused. She... didn't actually know if Scout could take off her shirt. She supposed she could always wear any new ones over it, but wasn't sure.

"I don't know..." Stacy said out loud. She looked over to where Mason was helping Will pick up their food, a quiet conversation passing between them. She wasn't too sure what they were talking about, but figured it had to be Scout.

"Aw, c'mon! It shouldn't be too hard. What is she, about American Girl doll size? I make clothes in that size all the time for my sisters."

"...I'll think about it." Stacy finally said, as Scout climbed up onto her shoulder, and to the top of her head. The Puppet pulled on her hair, but Stacy was able to keep herself from reacting to the pain. It wasn't that bad, compared to what she'd been through already. And she didn't want to remove the Puppet anyways, in case she went back to being a recluse.

Lisa helped get some plates set up and distribute the food, chattering all the while about all the clothes she was going to make for Scout. Shirts, hats, even tiny mittens for when it got cold out. Scout found it all very absurd, although Stacy seemed interested in it.

' _I'm not going to need those things anyways. Why is Stacy even humoring her?_ ' Scout watched as the Hosts all sat and started to eat, still perched on her Host's head. She desperately wanted to try what they were eating, but turned away when Stacy offered her some. ' _You don't even want to stay. No point in trying it anyway. Besides, it's just dumb Host feed._ '

After lunch Mason and Lisa left for home, with Mason promising not to let Lisa have anymore weed. Meanwhile Will went to return the big truck they'd used, leaving Stacy and Scout alone. The Puppet took the time to look around, noting how many boxes there were stacked against the walls. Some of them had writing on them, but many were blank. Stacy sighed as she took in all the blank ones, hand on her hip.

"Would it really kill him to label things for once." She muttered, then gave Scout a grim look. "He did this when he moved up here. Didn't write down what was in a single box, and then ended up buying a lot of stuff he didn't need to simply because he couldn't find it." She grabbed a small knife out of her pocket, opening it with some difficulty, then jabbed it into one of the unmarked boxes. "Let's see which one of these has my comics in it..."

Scout watched her open the box from the couch, listening to the noises of frustration when what the Host wanted wasn't there. She wasn't deterred, though, and quickly moved to the next unlabeled box after scrawling on the newly opened one with a smelly black marker. Each new box held either a groan of frustration, or a shout of excitement as Stacy searched through each one for what she needed. 

"Y'know, this is almost like Christmas. Except, more annoying cause I'm trying to find my stuff, rather than getting new stuff." She said after a while of of box opening. She finished writing and turned to the Puppet, who was absorbed in one of the comics she'd found. Speaking of, we'll probably be going to my grandpa's cabin with my family for Christmas this year. I should probably figure out how to tell them about you."

"Why?" Scout asked. She didn't see a point to 

"Well, you'd be coming with us, obviously." Stacy told her, and the Puppet felt herself freeze up at the implication. The Host didn't notice. "My brother, Danny, he's gonna love you!"

' _No I'm not._ ' She thought sadly as the human rambled on about her brother. ' _I'm not going anywhere else if I can help it._ '

Her plan had been working, quite well actually. She'd felt tired, lethargic even. And each movement had felt more and more difficult as time passed, to the point where she'd been sure it was about to end any day.

And then Stacy's fucking friends had opened the fucking door, and Stacy had grabbed her. Now she felt stronger than ever, and her plan was ruined.

No, she realized suddenly, while Stacy continued talking about her parents, not entirely ruined. She remembered something Riley had told her, before she'd been stitched to her very first Host. The bond relied on physical contact, but also proximity. Her energy would drain faster if she was further away.

"Hey, Host." She piped up, interrupting the human, who turned to look at her with a confused(and slightly hurt, but Scout ignored that) expression.

"Hmm?" She tilted her head, still bent over a half opened box. When Scout didn't answer immediately she started to get worried and straightened up. "What? Is something wrong?"

For a moment, Scout didn't speak, staring down at the colorful pages spread out in front of her. She didn't _want_ to do this, but wasn't any other choice. Not for her, anyways. Never for her.

' _No turning back now. This Puppet's going down! Before anyone else gets hurt..._ ' 

"Do you think we could have a window open tonight?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's chapter 13 everyone! The climax for the arc is coming soon, so hold onto your Puppets everyone!
> 
> Although I may or may not put up Happy Times episode 3 first, depends on what I feel like writing these next two weeks. So, y'know, keep an eye out. :D


	14. Oh No Here We Go

_An elevator ride after a terrifying trip through a human meat locker, black clothed bodies hanging from hooks like something out of a horror movie. Which, Stacy supposed this was, technically. It certainly felt like one, and had all the trappings of one. Which made her the surely doomed to die protagonist, should she fail._

_She listened to Scout ramble, nodding where applicable. Yes, Stacy was sure they could make it out if they just tried. Yes, the "Host World" was generally a good place, though it was a bit more nuanced than just good or bad._

_"Maybe, if we survive this, and that's a colossal IF, I could fit in out there, in your world. I know I'm a Puppet, but do you think that's possible?"_

_Stacy thought for a moment, then nodded. Even if Scout couldn't fit into the world at large, Stacy would make sure she could fit in with her and her friends._

_"Liar. I don't fit in at all, do I?"_

_Stacy stared at the little Puppet, confusion growing. How did she know if she fit in or not? Will, Mason, and Lisa all liked her. Hell, even Sammy liked her, once he got over the talking Puppet thing._

_"You should have just played the proper Host and died when you were supposed to." Scout told her coldly. "Then you'd still have both your arms."_

_But she did have both her_

_Her left arm, the one Scout was attached to, fell off. Pinkish stuffing dripped from the would as the limb dropped in slow motion towards the floor. When it hit, the floor fell apart, leaving Stacy floating as Scout fell towards the void._

_A second later, a large blue mitten hand pinned her against the wall, a much larger Scout rising up after it as the lighting turned flame colored. The Puppet loomed over her as Stacy struggled against the hand. Her hood vanished, but her mouth remained stitched, leaving her frustratingly voiceless._

_"You should've been better Stacy! Then we wouldn't be in this mess!" The Puppet told the Host. "Then maybe I wouldn't be dying! I'd have everything I'd need! I'd have been accepted by my own kind!"_

_Stacy struggled, but was pushed up tighter against the wall that wasn't there, chest burning from the pain. The Puppet balled her other hand up in a fist, and the Host watched as it zoomed down to meet her_

Stacy woke up with a start, feeling sticky with sweat and way too alert. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, making her feel shaky. And she knew she would feel exhausted when it faded out.

Beside her, Will barely stirred, still caught in the throes of sleep. A glance at the clocked showed it was almost four AM. A glance at the windows showed they were rain-splattered, though whatever storm had been going on seemed to have long since stopped.

' _Geez. It's been a while since I was up this early..._ ' She got up and made her way to the bathroom, not even bothering to flip on a light. She remembered too late she only had one arm, but was eventually able to do her business and wash up. She went to the kitchen left, intending to grab some water, but was stopped by a noise from the direction of the living room. A glance showed only the open window, which she quickly closed.

' _Forgot I left that open._ ' She yawned, the jumped when there was another noise from outside. ' _Damn strays._ ' She made her way back to the bedroom, flopping onto the bed. She curled up on top of the sheets and faded back into sleep.

Scout had stayed silent when the window suddenly closed behind her, laying flat against rock she'd landed on. She'd had a sudden urge to speak up when her Host had approached the window, a lie already coming to mind _"I was just looking and fell out! Let me back in!"_. But then her window of opportunity had closed, literally, and she was alone outside. 

"Ok Scout, no going back now." She told herself as she dropped off the rock and onto the damp grass. "Oh, ew!" She pulled herself upright, then focused on the lot across the street. She'd never made such a large Jump before, but she was sure she could make it.

\------------

Stacy woke up again at a much less insulting time, one where the sun was already up. Will was also already up, and she could smell the pancakes from the kitchen as she got up and got dressed. She went out to the kitchen and gave an loud, overblown sigh. "Wiiiiiiiiiill." She drawled out as she flopped onto the table like an over-dramatic teenager.

"Set the table or you get nothing." He told her, not even turning from the stove. He placed another one onto the stack beside him, steam wafting up from them. 

"Fair." She got up from where she'd sprawled across the table and grabbed the plates from the cupboard. She set three places at the table, using a smaller one for Scout. She then went and got the syrup and put it into the microwave. "Hey, have you seen Scout? I think she might want to try the pancakes." She asked as she watched the bottle spin.

"Nope." Will told her, finally finished cooking. He put the pile in the middle of the table, on the pot holder she'd put down for it.. "Haven't seen her since last night."

"Aw." She pouted slightly, putting the syrup on another pot holder. "I was hoping she'd want some pancakes. She loved my french toast, after all."

"Satan himself would love your french toast." He agreed as they sat down and started grabbing the cakes. "She's probably still sleeping or something. I bet we'll find her later, while we're unpacking."

"I guess..." It wasn't that unusual, considering the Puppet had stayed in hiding for the past couple of days. Still, Stacy would definitely feel better if she knew where Scout was. Especially with the uncomfortable pit in her stomach growing bigger with every bite she took.

Oh, wait. That was nausea. She rushed to the sink, and vomited her just eaten breakfast, ending with a disappointed groan. "My pancakes..."

"Well shit." Will said, moving to help her as she leaned heavily against the counter. "Maybe you should take it easy today. You might've pushed it too hard. I can finish unpacking by myself."

"But I wanna help." She coughed, then rinsed her mouth. She accepted an offered paper towel, wiping her mouth as Will guided her to the couch.

"Yeah, no. You aren't helping today. Or tomorrow. You get to lay there and watch Netflix." Will told her, and she groaned, but complied, laying down on her side while he set it up.

"Fine. But if you find Scout, bring her over here, yeah?"

"Sure, babe." He said, handing her the remote and then turning to grab an unopened, unlabeled box. Stacy laid there, listening to him rummage and put stuff in places, and feeling oddly at peace despite being sick. But even then, she still worried about Scout. And, as the hours passed, and the Puppet never showed up, she only became more worried. 

Eventually, while Will was in the kitchen, she got up to look for her. Under the couch, in the TV stand, and even in the bedroom under the bed, but Stacy couldn't find her. Eventually, Will caught her digging through the closet.

"Uuuuh, what are you doing?" He asked, holding onto two plates of leftovers. Stacy didn't look up, tossing yet more shoes over by the bed.

"Scout! I haven't been able to find her anywhere!" She told him, pulling and then shoving a box out of the way. "She's not under anything, or in the TV stand! So I'm checking this closet, and then the closet you keep the vacuum in."

Will stared, then went to put the food on the table. When he came back into the bedroom, Stacy had finished cleaning out the floor of their closet and was just standing up. He grabbed her arm as she tried to go past him, and practically dragged her to the table. "You sit here and try to eat something, I'll check the cleaning closet. You're just going to get hurt otherwise."

"No, I can do it myself!" She insisted, but he forced her to sit down.

"You have one hand, babe! And there's some heavy shit in there. So no, I'm going to do it." And with that he went to look in the closet, while Stacy stayed and picked at her food. Unable, and unwilling, to try and force something down, she instead went to watch Will.

She stood behind him, trying to see around him as he carefully pulled things out of the closet and set them to the side. He checked inside of anything that the Puppet could be hiding in, not wanting to miss her. But to his dismay and Stacy's mounting stress, she wasn't there.

While Stacy panicked, Will got a notebook and a pen, and then wrote down where they'd already searched. 

"Okay so the couch, TV stand, bed, both closets..." He muttered as he scrawled the places down, then paused, trying to think if there was anywhere else the Puppet could've hidden. "Did you look anywhere else, Stacy?"

"No, nowhere else." She muttered as she paced back and forth in front of him. "Where else could we look? The basement's always locked, there's no other place she could hide under..." She stopped, face scrunched up in thought before suddenly shrieking. "Outside! She told me to leave a window open last night and she went outside!"

Will stared at her. "Did you take your meds this morning?"

"No, Will. I puked and couldn't eat, remember?" She told him, suddenly calm again. Will just sighed heavily.

"Go eat, take your meds, and then we'll go look for your Puppet. She doesn't have any legs, so she can't have gotten too far away."

"Fine..." She grumbled, heading into the kitchen. While she did that, Will quickly shoved everything back into the closet, intending to organize it later. Moments later he heard retching, and sighed. 

"What could be causing that?" He wondered. "She seems fine otherwise."

Stacy came out a minute later, coughing and wiping her mouth. "Puked again. Can't take meds." She croaked out. Will just nodded.

"Yeah, okay Babe. Try again when we get back." He told her as he grabbed a flashlight and put on his shoes. Stacy followed as he went outside, looking around the yard and using the light to check under the house.

Stacy followed behind him, shifting through the piles of sticks and looking in the trash cans, in case she'd gotten stuck. But, no matter where they looked, Scout was nowhere to be found.

"Do you think she could've gotten out of the yard?" Stacy asked, peering down the street. Will sighed, brushing the dirt off his pants.

"Maybe, but I don't see a point to it. Where would she even go? Mason and Lisa's place? She doesn't even know the way." He scoffed, but couldn't keep the worried tone out of his voice.

"Hmmm..." Stacy paused, thinking about it. There was something she could try, though she hadn't attempted it since they got out. She wasn't even sure it would work if they weren't attached. Still... "Will I'm going to try something. Catch me if I fall over."

"What?" But his voiced already sounded far away as she focused, closing her eyes and _pushing_ with all her mental strength.

' _Scout, where are you?_

 _Reveal yourself!_ '

\------------

Stacy's eyes opened in an alleyway, the smell of moldy food and alcohol choking the air. She sat up, looking around the area. It seemed familiar to her, though she couldn't pinpoint why just yet.

She crawled to the mouth of the alley, then looked up and around the area. To the right, was a familiar neon purple and blue sign, though she could no longer recognize the words on it. Still, the sign itself was confirmation enough.

' _Beerly's. I can't believe she managed to get to Beerly's on her first try._ ' Stacy felt a sting of pride her chest, one that was quickly squashed by the sudden ice cold fear. The emotion was foreign, and caught her off guard as it quickly turned to a white hot rage.

' _Oh fuck you._ ' Rang through her head as her surroundings faded into blackness. 

\------------

Stacy opened her eyes, Will's worried face the first thing she saw. Slowly, she became aware of laying on her back, head in his lap as he threw his head with loud, relieved sigh.

"Oh thank God." He muttered as she struggled to get back up. "I thought you'd fucking died!"

"Scout's at Beerly's!" Was all Stacy said, which gave him pause. He watched as she ran to the house to grab the car keys.

"Wait, how do you know that? Stacy? Stacy! How do you know that?!" He followed her inside, then back out as she ran to his car and opened the driver's side door.

"Get in! Get in and I'll tell you how I found out! But we have to hurry, she knows we know and she might move somewhere else!" She bounced in place as he took the keys, then scurried around to the passenger side.

Will sighed, but got in and started the car. There was every possibility the explanation was just more Voodoo Magic Bullshit, but he'd hear her out. If nothing else, at least they were going to get Scout back.

Fifteens minutes later they were almost at the liquor store and Stacy had finished her explanation. And it was, in fact, Voodoo Magic Bullshit. Will let out a sigh when she was done talking.

"That... wasn't in the document you showed me." He told her, and she looked away, rubbing her arm.

"Yeah well, that bit's kinda, y'know, more personal than the rest." She shrugged. "I think it was supposed to be the opposite way around, but something went wrong with the spell."  
' _"Our psychic link's going haywire!" That's what Scout said back when I first did that. Must be really true, then._ '

"Well, whatever it is, at least it's helpful." He squinted through the windshield, trying to look past the traffic. "Looks like we're nearly there. Maybe you should do it again and make sure she hasn't moved."

"Fine." Stacy leaned back and closed her eyes, focused once more on _Find Scout_ and _Make Scout_. It was harder this time, like she was being fought against. But she pushed through the resistance, and let herself fill the Puppet body.

\------------ 

Stacy opened her eyes, to be met with the sight of smelly black trash bags. She bit back a cry of disgust and shoved her way out from behind the pile, thankful for the muted sensations.

' _Grossgrossgrossgrossgross_ ' Was the mantra playing in her mind as she dug herself out. It was disgustingly slimy, and got all over her hands. ' _Ew._ ' She shook them off, then wiped them on a fairly clean rag laying on the ground. It didn't get her completely clean, but it did help.

She looked around, noting with relief that it was the same alley as before. She knew Will wasn't that far away, maybe five minutes at most depending on the traffic. She was sure she could hold on for that long.

' _Get the fuck out of my head!_ ' A mental shove sent her tipping over, and she just barely caught herself before her head his the ground.

' _No! We are bringing you home!_ ' She insisted, starting the crawl to the mouth of the alley. If she could just keep Scout out in the open, Will would be able to spot them easily. At the very least, it'd give her less time to hide again if she managed to push Stacy out a second time.

' _Out!_ ' She could feel her mental grip slipping, but just doubled down. She dug herself in as deep as she dared, 

' _No! Make me!_ ' She crawled faster, finding it difficult to move as her limbs jerked while Scout fought for control. Still, she managed to make progress, if only a few inches at a time.

' _Host, I'm not playing around! I'm going to fucking kill you!_ ' Scout sounded desperate, but Stacy kept up her journey. She was stronger, at least for now. And she could keep control until Will came and got them.

They reached the street with more arguing, the Puppet body swaying with each attempt Scout made to push her out. But each attempt was weaker than the last, which worried began to worry Stacy. 

' _Will's going to be here soon. He'll take us home, and we can fix everything._ ' She assured as they waited. She was as close to the mouth of the alley as she dared, with a large puddle separating them from the street. She just hoped they were close enough for Will to see.

' _There's no fixing this._ ' The Puppet said, and Stacy had a sudden flash to when she was younger, crouched behind a pretty white gravestone, sleeping pills in hand. Wondering if it would hurt, or if it really would be just like going to sleep and never waking up.

' _Scout..._ ' She started, but was distracted by an approaching vehicle, and she looked to see whether it was Will. It was not, being a nice clean red rather than a beat up green-blue. She peered around the corner, just in case he was behind that one and saw another, wrong, one coming up.

' _Oh shit. Stacy, move!_ ' Scout's voice startled her, enough that she fell over as once again an attempt at regaining control was made. It didn't succeed, and Stacy sat up again with a scowl.

' _Wh_ ' The car zoomed, past hitting the puddle and splashing water over them. For half a second nothing happened, save for the disgust of now being made of wet fabric.

Then the flashlight in Scout's head exploded. That's all it could've been, Stacy had never felt such pain in her life as they collapsed and screamed. They jerked wildly on the ground and the electricity ran through their soaked body like they'd been tazed. 

"Stacy? Stacy! Oh shit!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is, chapter 14! I hope you enjoyed it, I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> And for all y'all who are worried about Scout, then don't! Nobody's going to die.
> 
> Yet.
> 
> (Feel free to yell at me now in the comments. :D)
> 
> Also I've been considering reopening my Patreon! Keep an eye on my Tumblr(https://creativeskullcreations.tumblr.com/) for news about that.


	15. Can We Fix It? Maybe!

Scout opened her eyes slowly, feeling groggy and with her head hurting like a bitch. She was in a very clean, white room she had never seen before, and, somehow, felt very full in a very weird way.

"Hey." She looked down, slowly, at the source of the noise, and saw Stacy lying there staring at her. The Host gave a small smile, and instantly Scout felt a little bit better. "You should go back to sleep. We have stuff to do tomorrow, and you'll need the energy."

"Oh, okay." Stacy watched the Puppet close her eyes, and within seconds the heartbeat against her arm fall back into a steady beat. She let her head hit the table with a quiet groan.

"Will, she did it again." She moaned, and Mason, who was sitting next to her, patted her head and moved a glass of water with a straw in it closer to her. She accepted it, taking a long drink.

"We're almost done here, don't worry."Will told her from where he and Lisa were by Scout's head, working quickly. The head itself was split open, fabric peeled back carefully to expose the felt brain, and wiring surrounding it. He sighed as he tried to figure out what was broken and how, but as the whole thing was confusing to him. There was no rhyme or reason to how the flashlight was supposed to work, when it should be a simple smack-to-turn on kind of thing. He couldn't even see a battery pack anywhere, instead concluding it must be on the other side of the brain. He sighed, finally giving up.

"There's no fixing this." He told Stacy, who looked crestfallen. "The wires seem to run through her brain, and there's no sign of a power source anywhere. I think we need to close her up, and call it good." He sighed, pulling off his gloves and moving back while Lisa stepped in to stitch the Puppet up.

"But the flashlight-"

"Is broken beyond repair, Stacy. Which means, at least, if she gets wet again _that_ shouldn't happen anymore." He sighed, relieved despite himself. His girlfriend's sudden seizure in the car had been terrifying, finding Scout's lifeless body surprisingly more so. But while Stacy had woken up, seemingly no worse for wear, Scout... hadn't. So they'd called Lisa, who'd brought Mason, and had attempted emergency surgery. Which, he supposed, went rather well all things considered. 

At the very least, she'd woken up about five times, seemingly coherent each time, which Will took as a good sign. That, and Stacy could feel the Puppets heart beat while her hand was.... inside her and _good Lord_ wasn't that just _creepy_? And Stacy said it had felt wrong, using her right arm instead of the left. But she'd kept it there anyways, hoping the more intimate physical contact would help keep the Puppet stable.

And it seemed to work, too. Broken flashlight or no, Scout had lived and that was what was important here, at least to Will. He didn't want to know what would happen to Stacy if she died. With a sigh, he washed his hands and watched as Lisa finished stitching up the surgical wound on her head.

Once that was done, and Lisa had styled Scout's hair in a way that completely hid the scar, Stacy finally felt like the Puppet was stable enough for her to remove her hand. And, luckily, she was right. There was no change except for Scout looking a little more deflated. The Host covered her with a small blanket sitting nearby, and settled in to wait.

It was a long wait, made even longer due to the fact they were sitting in Will's creepy basement lab. Granted they were in the cleaner part of it, without the haunted dolls in cages, or half-torn apart monsters, but it still made Stacy nervous. It reminded her of the Studio, and she hated that. No part of her home should remind her of that awful place. She only hoped Scout didn't make the connection when she woke up.

Speaking of, it looked like the Puppet was already starting to stir. Unable to help herself, Stacy reached out to stroke her hair, careful to avoid the new scar. 

"Ugh..." The Puppet groaned. She turned, spotting Stacy quickly. "What happened?" She asked, sounding groggy. Her eyes were still half closed, and she looked as though she might pass out again at any minute.

"Uh." Oh, Stacy hadn't planned for this. "What do you remember?" That sounded safe enough, and then she could figure it out from there.

"Not a lot." Scout admitted, not getting a chance to look around before Stacy scooped her up, blanket and all. She settled into the crook of her arm easy, though now the Host felt a little unsteady with her only arm taken up.

"... That's okay. Maybe you'll remember more later." She suggested, making her way up the stairs. She sat on the couch, letting Scout lay across her lap as she turned on Netflix. She selected something mindless, and kept the sound turned down. They watched for a while, before Scout craned her neck to look up at her Host.

"Why don't I feel as bad as I did before?" She asked. Stacy didn't look down at her, feeling more than a little stupid.

"Well, you remember the medicine I take?" Scout nodded. "Well one of the pills I'm supposed to take is a antidepressant. Because I have depression. It means I get really.... sad, I guess? And that makes me want to... not be alive any more." She added when she saw the Puppet open her mouth. Scout frowned.

"And what does that have to do with why I felt bad?"

"Well..." Stacy swallowed thickly. "When we got out of the studio, I felt... better. Normal. So I stopped taking the medicine. And then, and this is just a theory, but I'm pretty sure you.... caught my depression. And suicidal tendencies." She coughed lightly, staring at the wall. She felt stupid for not figuring it out sooner, but she'd been much more concerned with whether Rosco could follow them home.

Scout stared at Stacy. "What."

"Yeah..." She drew out the word, trying to think of a better way to explain. "I think it's cause of that psychic link you mentioned?"

"You're suicidal?!" Scout exclaimed, and Stacy sighed. 

' _Of course that's what she hears_.' She took a breath. "I mean, not anymore? I'm in therapy for it, and taking medicine. Supposed to be taking medicine." She corrected herself. "I, uh, I gotta tell the Doc I haven't been taking it."

"But you're going to kill yourself? Or have you already tried?!" She accused, and Stacy felt terrible once again. She hadn't wanted to make the Puppet worry, and was quick to try and reassure her.

"I mean, not since I was fifteen." She admitted. "That's what the therapy's for." Her eyes widened as she realized something. "And don't you dare think it's because of you! My issues started a long time ago!"

The Puppet flinched back, looking away, and Stacy felt bad again. "Look, Scout, this really isn't your fault. It's mine. I wasn't paying attention to what was going on, or I would have noticed what had happened." She sighed, rubbing her temple and feeling a headache coming on. "Thank God Will at least has some sense, or we might both be dead right now."

"Yeah..." Scout agreed. She rubbed the back of her head, but paused when she brushed the stitches. Her eyes widened, and the memory of getting splashed flashed briefly back into her mind. ' _Oh shit._ ' She realized, glancing up at Stacy, who hadn't yet noticed her shift in attention. "Um...?!" ' _She seems okay at least. Should I ask about it? Or just pretend like it never happened? What's the right answer here?_ '

Stacy glanced down, noticing the look on Scout's face and misinterpreting it. "Yeah. I mean, he did the best he could, but..." She let the sentence hang, and cleared her throat. "It... might not work anymore. Your flashlight, I mean."

"Oh..." The Puppet moved her hand, unsure if she should test it or not while Stacy watched, tensed to yell for Will if things went wrong. But, after a moment, Scout lowered her hand, bunching up the bottom of her shirt in her mitten hands instead..

"By the way, you're also going to be doing therapy." Stacy blurted out quickly. Scout looked shocked.

"What?! Why?! I don't need to!" Therapy meant doctors like Riley. And Scout would sooner take a bath then come face to face with a doctor.

"Yeah right, you're worse off than I am right now. Trust me, it'll help. Besides, I've already talked to Doc about you, so she's who you're going to be seeing." Stacy told her, adopting a no-nonsense tone. "And don't even try to hide from it, because I can and will find you the same way I did before."

"This fucking sucks." The Puppet muttered, turning away. She crossed her arms and hunched into a sulk. 

"Yeah..." Stacy agreed and, after a moment pulled the Puppet into a hug. It was a little awkward, and Scout stiffened up at first, but eventually she relaxed into it, remembering how nice it had been to be hugged the first time. It was still nice, but now had the bonus of feeling familiar. Stacy leaned back, settling in and turning up the volume of the show.

With any luck, things would be easier from now on. She'd take her pills again, Scout would get therapy, and they'd be leaving the studio far in the past where it belonged. Plus, now Scout had met the rest of her friends, so maybe she wouldn't be as lonely as before. She work on getting their numbers into the Puppet's phone later. For now, they were going to watch the show.. 

All in all, despite what had happened, Stacy held high hopes for the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus ends this arc, where we also see what caused the problem. Next thing I write will most likely be for Happy Times, so keep an eye on that if you're interested.
> 
> Don't stop taking your medicine even if you do feel better, unless your doctor orders it.


	16. Therapy Sessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus, we return to Outside! Starting with this brief interlude like chapter from someone completely new!
> 
> Update schedule is gonna be once every two weeks on Monday, just like before. As for Happy Times, that's gonna be on the back burner for a while so I can get this done, but I'll try and pop out another episode at some point.
> 
> So enjoy for now, and see ya;ll again later! :D

The puppet laid on the couch, flopped over like a discarded toy, eyes staring unblinking into space. If she didn't already know better, Trina would have assumed it was something one of her patients had left behind .

It, or rather she, wasn't a forgotten toy, however. She was her new patient, and, according to what another patient, Stacy, had told her, she had trust issues. But, she could work with that. And by that, she meant do paperwork until Scout was ready to talk.

Unfortunately, it seemed like that was taking a while. Before she knew it the whole hour had passed and the alarm had gone off. When Trina looked up from turning it off, the Puppet was gone, and the door was open. Ah well. She supposed she should prepare for her next patient, then.

\------

Once again, Scout was laying on the couch. A different position this time, and staring in a different direction. Trina resigned herself to more paperwork again, like the last few visits. Though she felt like they were making some progress. Sometimes she looked up and Scout was in a different position, or she was in the middle of blinking.

In her mind, that was a good thing. It meant the Puppet was starting to get comfortable with her. Maybe soon, she'd actually start talking.

\------

"Did you know Hosts can _bleed_ without getting hurt?"

The question startled Trina, and she fumbled the pen onto her crossword book. "Excuse me?!"

"Yeah they do it naturally into the toilet! And into these weird giant soft band-aids that Stacy didn't want me to mess with." Scout reached down her shirt and pulled out a bright orange square. "Jokes on her, I took one anyways."

"Ah." It made sense, actually, that Scout would have no knowledge of the menstrual cycle. "And... did Stacy explain what they were for?"

"Nope! She just yelled a lot, and turned really red." She pulled the tape holding the wrapper closed off, then stuck it to the couch. "I asked Will why she wouldn't tell me, and he said it's because Stacy's a prude. And then she yelled at him."

"Did Will explain it to you?"

"No. Because he's also a prude. Stacy said so." There was a loud tearing sound as she slowly pulled the backing off of the pad, and Trina realized why Stacy had kicked her out of the bathroom. She also made a note to never let Scout into her bathroom.

And so, Trina spent the remaining forty-five minutes giving a sex-ed lesson to a living hand puppet. Not the weirdest session she'd ever had, of course, but it was certainly up there. 

She just wished Scout hadn't stuck the pad to her keyboard.

\------

The next few sessions were spent answering whatever questions Scout had that for whatever reason, she couldn't ask Stacy. Whether it was about biology("But why is it brown?"), a question about porn("I just don't see the appeal of watching Hosts fucking."), or about movies("He was the best character! Why the fuck would they kill the best character!"). Most of the time, Trina would google it with her. But sometimes she would ask why she couldn't ask Stacy. Usually she'd get one of what felt like stock answers, but occasionally she'd go really quiet and only say:

"I just wanted to know what you thought about it. That's all."

And Trina would, outwardly, accept that. But she always made note of which questions were related to that answer to try and understand her better. She also started on a timeline, to try and get the two into a session together. It probably wouldn't happen soon, she wanted to try and get Scout talking about herself first. But once she'd made some progress there, they could try a joint session.

\------

It took another several weeks before Scout told her anything about herself. Although it wasn't what she expected.

"And then he gave me ice cream! And I ate it, because it was solid and delicious! But it fucking melts! And it's fucking gross!" She was raging, but in a way that almost made her look adorable. Not that Trina would tell her so, of course.

"And, why is it so bad that it melts?"

"Because it soaks in! Duh!" She looked thoroughly annoyed, and Trina felt a little bad for asking.

"What happened next?" She asked instead. 

"Stacy and Will yelled at each other a lot, and then Stacy went to sleep on the couch. And then the next morning they locked themselves in the bedroom and wouldn't let me in while they made weird noises."

"Ah." Stacy had told her about that. It wasn't always the healthiest thing she could do, but Stacy genuinely thought it helped so Trina wasn't able to do much to dissuade her. "Did they come out at some point during the day?"

"Yeah, eventually! But it was boring as hell until then." A pause. "They banned me from Netflix, too, cause Stacy said what I was watching was a bad influence on me."

"Well that's too bad." She kept her tone sympathetic. "What else do you do during the day?"

"Watch TV."

"Besides that."

"Oh." Scout sat up, thinking. "Nothing- Well, I do hang out with Stacy a lot."

"Hmmm." Trina wrote that down in her notes. "Have you tried to find something other than TV? A hobby of some sort, or even a game to play?"

"I do play this game called Kirby sometimes." She admitted. "It's... kinda fun."

"Have you beaten it yet?"

"I mean... no..." She looked away, playing with the edge of her shirt.

"Maybe you should try and do that. Could be more fun than just watching Netflix all day." She kept her voice upbeat, and tried to figure out something else the Puppet could do besides TV.

"Maybe..." She looked around the room, eyes never stopping on one spot for too long. Trina waited patiently, pen tapping lightly against her notebook. "... Something happened last night. Something... kinda bad."

"Oh?"

Scout nodded. "Sometimes, when Stacy wakes up and doesn't know where I am, she'll... take over my body. Not to do bad stuff though!" She was quick to assure when she Trina's face. "It's just to, y'know, see where I am. She gets worried when she can't find me."

Stacy had mentioned that. Apparently she now brought Scout everywhere with her, including to her programming job. "What made last night so different then."

"Well, normally I just sort of... float? I guess? When she does that. But, last night, I... woke up in her body."

Trina blinked. "Well, I suppose it makes sense that would happen-"

"No it fucking doesn't!" Scout shouted, cutting her off. "It's a bad thing! Very fucking bad!"

"Well, why do you say that?"

"Because it means that our fucked up link is evolving!" Scout told her in a 'duh' tone of voice. "Who knows how it could change from here!"

"Is it possible that you've always been able to do that, but just never did before now?" Trina asked.

That gave her pause, and seemed to calm her down a bit. "... I don't know. Maybe." She shrugged. "I... never really wanted to try before..."

Trina nodded, adding another note to her paper. "What happened next after you... woke up in Stacy's body."

"Well, we both flipped our shit, which woke Will up and then he flipped _his_ shit. And then he and Stacy yelled for a while before he left and we managed to, uh, swap back." Scout scratched the side of her head, thinking. "And then Will came back with something, and he and Stacy fought some more."

"What did they fight about?"

"The thing Will brought back. It's some sort of a toy, like a psychic test." She scowled. "He made us sit there and do it, right then."

"The Waygetter one?" At Scout's confused look, she waved the question away. "Never mind. What were the results?"

\------

"100 percent psychically linked." Stacy said, arms folded and stoic look on her face. "Not that I didn't already suspect, but I'd prefer a real test to a Waygetter "toy"."

"Of course you would, considering your past." Trina said, jotting down notes. "Did anything happen after that?"

The young woman shrugged. "Not a lot, mostly just went back to bed. I thought about banishing Will to the couch for his betrayal, but decided against it."

"Good." She nodded. "Banishing him over something so small, and when he was just trying to help, could lead to resentment building up later on." 

"Yeah yeah." She kept her arms crossed, eyes trained on the floor. "Scout was pretty upset about it, though. But she's upset about a lot of stuff cause she feels guilty."

"Really now?" Trina jotted that down. "How do you know about that?"

"Psychic link." Stacy raised a single eyebrow. "Duh."

Trina sighed. "Has anything else happened lately? Made any friends at your job?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "This one woman, Chell, talks to me sometimes. She knows sign language, which is kinda cool I guess. But, I wouldn't say we're friends."

"Maybe you should focus on making friends with her. It seems like you two already have something in common already."

"Mm." Stacy looked away, tapping the fingers of her prosthetic against her flesh arm. It was pretty scary to look at, but it didn't stop her from wearing a spaghetti strap, leaving the limb on full display. Trina had also taken note of that, attributing it more to the woman's anti-social behavior than confidence or a strong body image.

"You can't rely on Will's friends forever, Stacy." She told her. "You need a life outside of him. It's not healthy to center everything around him."

"Easy not to lose everything if you don't have anything." She retorted. "I have Will, and I have Scout. They're all I need for now."

"What about your brother?" She looked away. "Or your father? Have you talked to either of them recently?" Silence was the answer, and Trina only sighed, used to it by now. "Your homework this week is to call your family for once. You need to repair your connections to them."

"I need to convince Scout to drop her guilt."

"That's my job." Trina gave a small smile that went ignored. "I'm serious about talking to your family though. Especially if you plan on getting into more... situations like this one. How would Danny feel if you died, and nobody would tell him anything about it?"

Stacy shrugged, and Trina sighed again. "Call your father. Text your brother. Make a new friend. Do one of these three things before our next appointment, okay?" She ordered as the timer dinged, signalling the end.

"Fine." The woman ground out, standing up and straightening her top. She accepted the offered prescription, then left the room. She stopped just briefly to grab her bag from Molly, the receptionist, and then went out to her truck. Scout popped out of the bag as she exited the building, and Trina sighed as she watched them.

They truly were an odd pair, and Trina hoped things worked out for them. She certainly couldn't imagine it could get any worse, anyways.


	17. Dinner at Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, new plot. Plus got to see a little bit of Danny in this 'verse. :D
> 
> And plans are in motion now. What's gonna happen? Stick around to find out.

Stacy sighed as she got into the truck, undoing the professional looking bun her hair was in. Scout popped out of her bag when she set it in the passenger seat, gasping over-dramatically. 

"Oh stop that. You're fine." Stacy told her, buckling herself in. She started the car, and got ready to back out of the parking spot.

"Says you! You aren't spending eight hours a day in a fucking bubble!" The puppet flopped out of the bag. "Are we going home yet?"

"No, we've gotta go grocery shopping." Scout groaned and threw one arm over her eyes.

"Aw man. I hate Walmart." She grumbled. "There's always too many kids staring at me."

"It'll be fine. We can go look at movies again before we get the food."

"Okay fine." Scout climbed up the door to look out the window. "But I want Pop Tarts this time! Real ones!"

"I think I can do that." Stacy agreed as she pulled into the parking lot. She reached over and grabbed her wallet before grabbing Scout, letting her settle into the hood of her jacket as they entered the store.

They checked movies, though there was nothing new out yet that they hadn't seen, and then went on to collect the items on Stacy's list. A quick checkout later and they were finally on their way home. It could not have come soon enough for Scout.

The way home from Walmart wasn't too long, maybe a ten minute drive on a bad day. So they got home quick enough, and Scout watched as Stacy started to juggle the many bags. She ended up having to sting them onto her prosthetic in order to get them all into the house, but did succeed in getting all the bags to the kitchen.

Will was downstairs, as he usually was at this time of day. Though, whether he was working on computers or his... hobby, was anyone's guess. Scout certainly wasn't going to go down there to check, either way. Instead she Jumped to her room, which was almost more of a closet with how small it was. But, it held a bed(in her own size!), a charging station for the Switch, and sometimes Stacy's laptop when she could be bothered to drag it in there. The walls were lined with multiple shelves with rope ladders connecting them, giving her a lot of storage space. Most of it was still empty, but she had collected a few things over the past several months.

Including clothes, apparently. Stacy had expressed concern with Scout running around with Mortimer's face on her shirt, and had enlisted Lisa to make her some new ones. Not that Scout could take her "shirt" off, of course, but she could wear other ones over it. Her favorite so far was a green one that said "eat dick and die". It was the best one, no contest, but Stacy wouldn't let her wear it outside the house.

"It's crude, and while I know you love that stuff it's not a good idea to wear that to my job. Someone could go to HR about it." Her Host had told her. Scout thought that was just stupid, but had agreed not to wear it to the workplace.

Stacy, meanwhile, worked on putting groceries away. It was good practice for her arm, especially in not crushing the groceries. She managed to mangle to bread only a little bit this time, and figured she was probably doing better than she usually did. Scout reappeared a moment later, wearing the green shirt Lisa had made her. She handed over the Pop Tarts to the puppet, who immediately tore into the box to grab one of the foil packets.

"It's almost suppertime, so don't eat too many of those." Stacy warned her, only to be met by a muffled grunt in response. She sighed, and just collected the stuff she needed; Kraft macs n cheese, premade burger patties, and some green beans for a vegetable. Maybe not the best dinner, but Will was still working and they needed some food.

As she got the stove going, a pan of water for the mac set up, and the pan for the burgers got oiled. She selected three patties and put the rest back in the freezer for another day while things heated up. The beans she dumped in a third pan on the back of the stove, adding a bit of salt for taste.

Scout watched all of this while softly crunching on the Pop Tarts. Months in the Host World, and she still didn't understand why Stacy wanted to cook. It was much easier and quicker to just grab one of the snacks laying around. Then again, maybe it had to do with that "nutrition" shit Will had told her about once. 

As Stacy cooked she started typing out a message to Will on her phone, mostly to let him know dinner was done. He may have been just right in the basement, but she didn't want to go down there if she didn't have to. But as things finished cooking and she started to set the table, Will still hadn't come upstairs or even answered her text. And so, with a sigh, she covered the food and made her way downstairs.

"Will? It's time for dinner." She called as she reached the bottom of the stairs. No answer, but the muffled beat of heavy metal and the high pitched whine of a buzz-saw. She went through the door and was greeted with a mess. A wooden doll was stretched on the exam table in the middle, and Will was standing over it with the buzz-saw, shouting over the pounding music and whining noise.

"Hey, bitch! Make your boyfriend turn it down!" A red haired doll in a welded shut dog crate yelled over the music. She ignored it and instead punched a nearby gong with her metal fist. The resulting metal bang startled Will enough that he almost dropped the saw. He looked over and, once he spotted her, rushed to shut everything down.

"Yeah babe?" He asked, like he hadn't been threatening a sentient doll. The puppet in question was gagged, but sending a quite fierce death-glare at him. 

"It's dinner time. Finish up here and come up, I made burgers." She told him, smiling a little as his face lit up.

"Score!" He quickly shoved the saw away before turning to take the doll off the table and put it into a cage. It swapped it's glare to her as he shoved it inside the crate, but Stacy just stared stonily back at it.

"Yeah, you keep trying that buddy. Nothing stops these two assholes. Ow!" The red headed doll sent Stacy his own death glare as she kicked his cage, knocking him over.

"Keep quiet." She growled out, not even looking at him. "Be thankful you're not tied up too."

"Yeah yeah. Go back to your favorite toy, Bitch." He huffed out. "Can't believe you keep that thing living up there with ya. If you had any kind of integrity, she'd be down here, in a cage, with the rest of us. Ow! Fuckin' shit would you stop that?!"

"Chucky, be quiet." A nearby doll in a ripped wedding dress scolded. "You know better than to antagonize her."

"What, it's true! That thing up there is just like us, but _she_ gets to live in the lap of luxury! Hey!" 

Stacy propped a foot up on the cage, tipping it onto it's edge and leaning down to glare at the toy inside. "You wanna stop talking now? Or do you want me to come back down here after dinner, Mr. Ray?"

The dolls said nothing more and Stacy righted the cage as Will finished up. The went back upstairs, locking the door behind them. 

On the table was Scout, with half a burger patty in her mouth. She froze when the two Hosts walked into the room.

"Scout, seriously?" Stacy asked. "You're supposed to wait for us before you start eating."

Scout spat out the half eaten patty. "You were taking too long. I wanted to eat."

"You still should have waited. We only took a couple of minutes."

"But I didn't want to wait."

Stacy just sighed, and grabbed a bun out of the bag to squirt some ketchup onto. This was a fight just not worth getting into, especially when it wouldn't change anything. 

Instead they made up their buns and sides, and were sat down to eat. Will prayed, and Stacy waited for him to be done before digging in. Scout didn't even wait, and just finished off her meat patty before digging into the macs and cheese.

The trio ate in silence, too hungry to talk at first. But eventually Stacy swallowed a bit, and decided she was sick of the quiet.

"So, you make any progress with the Gardner job?" She asked Will. Doll torturer or not, he did still have a "real" job, same as her.

"Eh, a little. Gotta ask who usually uses the computer, though. It's full of viruses from porn sites."

"Ew. Do they have a kid, or just a really stupid adult?"

"They've got a twelve year old girl, so she's the most likely suspect." Will swallowed another bite. "Miss Gardner is always away and working, like, three jobs so it's gotta be the kid or a friend she has."

"Who would go on a porn site? It's just naked sweaty Hosts, they're gross."

"Uh..." Stacy wondered how to handle this. And then wondered if Scout had ever gone on one of those sites, to know about that part. "It's... just a thing. Some people like to look at." She coughed. "Don't question it."

"Sure." Scout comped down on a green bean, and Stacy gave a soft sigh of relief. Scout was bad enough with her language already, and Stacy didn't want to risk her learning more words and terms.

Dinner ended soon after that, with Will loading the new dishwasher when everyone was done eating. He went back downstairs to finish up what he'd been doing. Stacy and Scout meanwhile went to play video-games. Well, Stacy played, while Scout watched her do quests from her lap.

"Go down that tunnel! Go! The left!" Scout pointed forcefully, waving her arms when she was ignored.

"No, that's where we came from." Stacy sighed, annoyed yet also a little amused. "Would you rather be the one playing?"

"No. I can't hold the controller." The Puppet waved her off before suddenly yelling. "You're not looting the bodies!"

"And you won't shut up." The Host muttered, looting a single body before going back to chasing the objective. "Are you sure you don't want to play?"

"How would I even fucking do that? Don't answer that."

"Okay." Stacy fought a few more Drauger. She thought about mentioning that she wouldn't really mind it, if Scout wanted to play, but decided against it. The body swap was still a sore subject, and she didn't want to ruin the good mood. 

A ping from her phone, and she paused the game to answer a text from her brother. Being the nosy Puppet that she is, Scout tried to see what she was typing. "Who's that? I thought you didn't have friends."

"It's my younger brother, Danny. Doc wanted me to talk to him more, so I am."

Scout blinked. "You have a brother?" She thought back, tried to think if she'd ever seen any pictures of Stacy's family, but couldn't remember. Will she knew had a picture of his mother, but other than that neither Host talked about their families that much.

"Yeah." A couple of swipes, and she lowered the phone to show the Puppet a photo of a younger boy. He had the same reddish hair she did, but with much paler skin and brighter blue eyes. He was also wearing an absolutely atrocious looking sweater. "He's about eight or nine years younger than me, depending on who's had a birthday at that point."

"Oh..." Scout stared at the picture. "Why is he wearing headphones?"

"Those are part of his cochlear implants. He's deaf." She swiped back over to messaging to finish her text. "But he got the surgery at a young enough age that you pretty much can't tell. He's just got a little bit of a weird sounding accent."

"Oh, cool." Stacy finished her text and went back to the game, Scout watching quietly this time. "I have a brother."

Stacy fumbled an attack, but recovered quickly enough that she didn't die. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Yeah. And three sisters." She squirmed a little, playing with the hem of her shirt. "... They probably all have Hosts by now. They were a lot better at... fitting in, than I was."

"Oh." Stacy paused the game, considering. "I'm... uh, do you you wanna talk about it?"

"Nah. I just thought you should know about them." She settled back, and Stacy unpaused the game. "I doubt I'm ever going to see them again, anyways. They were all assholes."

"Sounds like it, if they were able to "fit in" over there."

\-------

Canon huffed, doing her best to try and suck in air. This was the... she didn't know how many times she'd been almost torn apart by the spells Mortimer was working on. Not really, of course, but it certainly felt like it. Like there was a scalpel carefully slicing into each stitch, cutting the small threads one by one. 

"Hmm, looks like things are going well. I think I'm just about done with this spell." The magician commented, ignoring how the smaller Puppet lay limply on the floor. "Yes this plan has come together splendidly! Soon your sister will be right where she ought to be."

"... Great..." She groaned, trying to force herself upright. She failed, falling back to the floor with a soft thump. "I... can't... wait..." She had to finish the rhyme, at least, no matter how much it hurt.

"Indeed." He smirked, then grabbed a phone off the wall. "Oh Riley, we're just about ready to start! All we're missing now is the star! So gather your tools and a henchman, and go warm up the car."

"Preparations have already begun!" She relayed with an excited giggle. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"


	18. Confrontation in the Street

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting to the end of the fic soon. But we've still got some stuff to wrap up, first. ;) After all, it's not like Stacy and Scout made a clean getaway...

Stacy groaned as she stared at the computer monitor, lines of numbers and symbols filling the screen. "This was just working, like, five seconds ago..." She rubbed at her forehead, trying to spot where she had screwed up the code, comparing it to her handwritten notes, as well as the copy on her phone. It al matched, and none of it was working. She let her head fall against the desk.

"Why did I decide to be a programmer?" She bemoaned. Her desk-mate, Chell, reached over and patted her back in sympathy. Stacy then sat back up and went back to combing over the code, searching out and fixing all the little mistakes. By the time lunch came around, she had managed to get it to work better, but not to where it needed to be.

Grabbing her lunch from her bag, she dug into the sandwich while some others in the office left to go somewhere else. With the office sufficiently emptied, Scout climbed out of the bag and onto the desk in order to grab some food.

Chell watched this with some small fascination, while Stacy kept one eye on her mute coworker. As far as she could tell, the other woman thought Scout was some sort of an advanced V-Pet or something, and she wasn't looking to dissuade that notion.

Chell tapped her flesh arm. " _It's taking your chips._ " She signed when Stacy turned to look at her.

"Yeah, she does that." She replied, not even looking as Scout climbed back down into the the bag, mouth full of chips. "At least she doesn't leave crumbs."

" _It's weird that you let it do that._ " She frowned. " _Is it not possible to leave it home?_ "

"Nope, not possible." She turned back to her computer, shoving the rest of her food in her mouth so she could type. Chell turned back to her own monitor, taking the action to mean the conversation was over. At least she tried.

The time after lunch was spent fixing up more of her code, comparing it against Chell's to make sure they would work well together. They did not, which meant more tweaking until they did. Codes saved, with a promise to test them together again tomorrow, and they were soon able to pack up and go home.

On her way out to her truck, Stacy spotted an unmarked white van with tinted windows sitting across the street. She stared at it for a second, wondering why it looked familiar. She was sure that she'd seen it somewhere...

She shrugged the feeling off and got in her truck, starting the drive back home. It probably just hung out in front of the building a lot, and that's why it looked familiar. She'd ask Scout or Chell about if they'd seen it later.

Unnoticed, the white van followed at a distance.

\---------

Setting up for DnD night was always tough, and Stacy preferred when it wasn't at her house for that reason. But they were on a rotation, so she had to deal with getting out the wine glasses, soda, cooking the pizza, and making sure the table was set up. Well, Will did the table part, after she accidentally crushed a plate with her prosthetic. 

Scout balanced on her Host's head, flopped over and peering down as she pulled the pizza from the oven. The others were already gathered around the table, setting up character sheets and maps. She could hear them talking in there, chatting and having fun as Mason and Will tried to initiate a fight between their characters.

Stacy could feel it as Scout turned to watch them, glancing between the group and her closet-room. It was obvious she wanted to join them, though Stacy wasn't sure why. It was usually a loud affair, and Scout didn't like loud events, unless it was a TV show or video-game.

"You can stay and watch, you know." She told the Puppet, who startled. "Nobody would mind it really."

"Hmm." More looking, and then the weight on her head disappeared, and Stacy sighed. 

' _Maybe it's a good thing she doesn't want to join. It'll keep the questions down at least._ ' She sliced up the pizza and turned off the oven, plating some up for herself. "Okay everyone, pizza's done! Come get some before it all disappears!"

The three other adults rushed into the kitchen, piling up as much pizza as they could onto their plates. They all chattered excitedly about the session as they went back to the table. Stacy turned just in time to see Scout grabbing a slice, crawling away with it in her mouth like some sort of tiny cryptid. It was adorably hilarious, and she wished she could've gotten it on video.

They all got settled in, and Lisa started going over her notes while Stacy looked back over her character sheet. She needed a refresher from the last session she was a part of, as she'd had to skip a couple due to work.

"Okay, so the party is heading through a giant Dwarven fortress, deep underground." Lisa told them. "Marigold's been carried around by Nutbuster-"

" _The_ Nutbuster." Mason corrected. He'd worked too hard on her character for Lisa to ignore part of her title.

"Right..." She sighed. "So she's been carrying Marigold around, and protecting her during her hibernation."

"Cool." Stacy put the sheet down and put her figure with the others. She was glad that her character hadn't died, at least.

"Okay, so..."

Lisa described the ancient Dwarven ruin they were in, searching for an orb that could tell the future for the King. He needed it to find out where the dragons that kept roasting his kingdom were, and when and where they would strike next. If they could get it without dying, of course.

As they delved deep inside the ruin, avoiding traps and defeating enemies, Scout watched from the doorway. It looked like just one big game of pretend, and from how Stacy had described it that's basically what it was. As Scout watched them, she felt she preferred video-games better. Much less imagination needed for those.

A noise at the backdoor made her pause, however. The Hosts didn't seem to have heard it, so with a sigh Scout decided to go check it out. ' _Maybe one of the guys downstairs got loose._ ' She figured she could just call the others for help, as she Jumped to the kitchen. Looking around, everything was where it had been before, and the basement door was still closed.

The backdoor was ajar, though.

Scout just sighed, Jumping over to close it back up. "Creepy old house..." She muttered. She turned around to go back

\-----

A door slammed in the kitchen, making everyone look up from their game. "Did Scout just fail to sneak outside again?" Will asked, looking around for the wayward Puppet.

"She'd better not have." Stacy muttered, then blinked. "I think she's unconscious actually."

A pause, and then the couple raced to the windows. Mason and Lisa looked on in confusion and growing worry. They stood up and followed as Stacy paled, then raced outside and towards a white van. 

"You!" She growled out as the two caught up to her, Mason grabbing her flesh arm to hold her back. For a moment, the dark clothed figure didn't move, staying still halfway in the van. Slowly the figure leaned back out, pulling along with them Riley, of all Puppets, holding an unconscious Scout in her grasp.

"I wouldn't get any closer if I were you." She told them, as Stacy struggled to pull away from Mason. "Or you won't like what I'll do."

"You let her go right now! Or I'll punch you into next week you Muppet reject! I'm gonna-!" She shut up when Riley's Host pulled a pistol out and aimed it at her. A second later, it aimed the gun at Scout. instead as Riley grinned under her mask.

"I'd watch that mouth if you want to remain among the living. I shoot her and you'll be the one dying." Riley warned her, and Stacy felt her mouth go dry.

' _Oh... I never considered who's life was tied to who's..._ ' "What do you want?" She ground out. ' _Keep her talking. Will just needs a few more minutes..._ '

"Why, both of you, or course. You're coming with me, for better or for worse." Her Host took a step back, and Riley gestured to the vehicle with her free hand. "So be a good Host and get into the van. And don't try to escape, there's no way that you can."

Stacy didn't know what to do, and had no real plan. But, she still yanked her arm out of Mason's grip and took a step towards the Puppet scientist. A second later a gunshot rang out and the Host dropped to one knee, blood splattering out from the leg. A look behind them showed Will on the porch, rifle to his shoulder as he glared at the Puppet.

"Don't hit Scout!" Stacy yelled as Riley yanked her Host to it's feet and dove into the van. Stacy made a run for it but Riley closed the door as another Puppet in the driver's seat floored it, peeling out of their street. Stacy barely managed to dive out of the way as it raced past her, ending up on the ground.

She stared after the vehicle as it vanished around a corner, tears gathering in her eyes as the others approached to make sure she was okay. She buried her face in her arms, and choked back a sob. ' _Please no! I don't want to go back!_ '

\----

The group gathered in the living, sitting silent. Stacy couldn't keep her eyes off the window, staring down the road Riley's van had gone as though that might make it reappear. Will, meanwhile, was gathering supplies.

"We need a plan!" He announced, slapping down a notebook and some pens. "Stacy, what do you know about that studio?"

"Uh." She blinked several times, wiping at her face as she tried to remember. "Uh, it was almost burnt down a while back, but there wasn't any sign of fire damage inside."

"Fire! Excellent weapon!" He scribbled 'Burn place DOWN! bring gas' "Anything else?" 

"Um..." She thought back to what she'd seen. "No other Host was ever... awake. All of them were just puppeteered around by the Puppets."

"So nobody on the inside that could help us..." Lisa sighed. 

"No, probably not..."

"By the way, you never told us how you... "woke up". How did that happen, anyways?" Mason asked, leaning forward in his chair. 

"I... don't really know." She shrugged. "I took some Xanax before I went inside, and then did what I guess everyone else who goes in there did, and then I woke up a while later to Scout panicking about it."

"Took some... how long did it take before you woke up?" Will asked.

"I don't know, actually. It was afternoon when I went inside, but nighttime by the time we got out."

"Xanax has a sort of sedative function to it." Will muttered. "It probably circumvented the effects of the spell, tricking it into think that was the normal state of your mind."

"And then when it wore off, the spell broke." Stacy thought about it. ' _But wouldn't that have also worked for Anthony? Unless Mortimer's just stronger than Scout is..._ '

"Okay, but how does that help us? Do we just pump weed or coke into the building?" Lisa asked.

"No, we take it ourselves and break in!" Will explained, and everyone looked shocked.

"Dude, I love ya, you're my best friend, but I don't love you that much." Mason told him. "I'm not looking to get my soul sucked. Could hurt my chances for the afterlife."

"Okay wow, first of all fuck you." Will deadpanned. "Second of all, Stacy's life and soul are already at stake!" He gestured towards his girlfriend, who looked like she was trying very hard to not look distraught. 

"Is it really though? That Puppet could have been lying when she said Stacy would die if Scout did." Lisa pointed out. "Also, we don't even know if brain altering chemicals will actually work against the spell. Maybe it didn't work on her cause her great grandma was into voodoo."

"Rude. But also true." Stacy admitted, still sounding on the verge of tears. "I really don't know why I didn't stay a zombie. Maybe it was just luck."

"But we really don't have any other ideas." Will said. "Unless you think we can just storm the place?"

"Not... not really, no." She admitted. "They may just be puppets, but there's a lot of them. We'd be overwhelmed in an instant."

Silence, and then Mason sighed and stood up, taking the notebook from Will. "Okay then. Here's the plan..."

**Author's Note:**

> So, how'd y'all like it? Good? Bad? Comment and let me know.
> 
> Also keep an eye on my art blog(https://creativeskullcreations.tumblr.com/) for any pics and comics that I'll post for this fandom. Chapter art will be put in the fic, of course, but that won't be all I'll draw for it.


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